Abstract

This essay exhibits and explains a range of claims, each of which is central to Fichte’s “theory of science” (Wissenschaftslehre) and all of which importantly anticipate existentialism. The claims in question are the following: (1) The nature of selfhood or subjectivity is an issue of fundamental philosophical importance. (2) The self is not a thinking substance or knowing subject; it is a self-conscious project of self-actualization. (3) Qua self-conscious project, the being of the self is an ongoing interrelating of freedom and finitude. (4) Qua project of self-actualization, the self is not a causally conditioned object but a self-transparently self-realizing activity. (5) This activity involves a striving for the self’s actuality. (6) Knowing is an activity founded upon and steered by that striving. (7) Qua striving for _the self’s_ actuality, the self’s activity harbors an orientation toward authenticity. (8) Qua striving for the self’s _actuality_, this activity aims for a humanly unreachable goal.