This paper aims to explore conceptual relationships between philosophical developments to support freedom of speech in John Milton´s Areopagitica and Johann Gottlieb Fichte´s Reclamation of the Freedom of Thought. I intend to enhance the philosophical heritance collected and recreated by Fichte. This paper hypothesizes that both theories state that freedom of speech is a condition for the development of morality. In both cases, moral deliberation has a public character, given that moral judgment needs the consideration of different viewpoints about the (...) question at stake. Finally, in both cases, it is defended a republican concept of power, characterized by opposition to moral paternalism, as a form of despotism. (shrink)

Locke’s views on religious toleration are a “tremendously important contribution” on this subject, which anticipated the First Amendment to the Constitution and subsequent Supreme Court decisions. Professor Konvitz argues that religious liberty is a prerequisite to all the liberties of the human spirit including freedom of speech, press, and assembly. He further asserts that, historically, revolts against oppressive governments often bring with the struggle for religious liberty. Locke’s basic concepts regarding religious freedom are explained. These include the right of individuals (...) to maintain their personal religious beliefs free from the interference and persecution of either an established ecclesiastical order or the state, the nature of churches as voluntary self-governing organizations, the importance of the separation of church and state, and the importance of religious tolerance for the religious opinions that differ from the norm. For Locke, religious freedom is not absolute. Intolerant sects that call for the dissolution of the state unless it accepts their religious viewpoint, that serve foreign governments, that advocate practices violating the laws of civil society, or that deny the existence of God should not be tolerated. (shrink)

The reception history of the French Revolution in France and England is well documented among Anglophone scholars; however, the debate over the Revolution in Germany is much less well known. Fichte's Contribution played an important role in this debate. Presented here for the first time in English, Fichte's work provides a distinctive synthesis of Locke's "possessive individualism," Rousseau's general will, and Kant's moral philosophy. This eclectic blend results in an unusual rights theory that at times veers close to (...) a form of anarchism. Written in 1792–93, just before Fichte moved to Jena to develop his philosophical system in a series of works—above all the Wissenschaftslehre of 1794—the Contribution provides invaluable insight into Fichte's early development. In addition, Fichte's work predates much of Kant's political philosophy, and can shed light on the rich dialogue in German political thought in the 1790s. (shrink)

The backlash against the Olympic Games reflects the failure of the major global institutions in dealing with the social and ethical consequences of globalisation in areas such as the environment, poverty, terrorism and natural disasters. Disillusionment with the Olympic Games mirrors the disenchantment with the perceived values of globalisation, including winning at any price, commercial exploitation by MNCs, intense national rivalry, cronyism, cheating and corruption and the competitive advantage of advanced nations. How could the Olympic Movement reverse this perception? The (...) most important change would be in the area of leadership. Revitalising the Olympic spirit will require a revolution at the IOC. Character, credibility and communication will be the critical success factors. Before appointing the next President of the IOC, there is an exciting opportunity to reconceptualise the Games as a platform for building a framework of global values to counter-balance the naked economic priorities currently dictating the pattern of globalisation. In reinventing the Olympic Games, it is important to recognise that the modern Games are based upon an anachronism. The idea that amateur sport is both the key to individual moral development and world harmony is largely an invention of the British aristocracy, whereas the original Greek Games not only celebrated the classical ideal of `a sound mind in a sound body', but also involved professional athletes and commercial activity. In making the Olympic Charter relevant to the 21st century, and in making the Olympics more than just a speculator sporting event, there is a strong case for the Games to include a wider spectrum of activities, including arts programs and policy forums, which address the well-being of all humanity in a competitive global economy. (shrink)

There is as yet no general agreement about exactly when Locke's Second Treatise of Government was written. Primarily as a result of Peter Laslett's arguments, the old assumption that it was written after the Revolution of 1688 has been abandoned, and it is almost universally agreed that both of the Two Treatises were written (apart from a small number of additions made in 1689) in the period between Locke's return to England from France at the end of April 1679 (...) and his departure for Holland in August 1683. An earliest possible date for the First Treatise can be established without difficulty. It cannot have been started before Filmer's Patriarcha was published in the winter of 1679-80, and probably not before Locke bought his own copy on 22 January 1680. Theories about the composition of the Second Treatise may therefore be divided into two classes: those which suppose, with Laslett, that it was begun in 1679, before Patriarcha was published, and therefore before Locke could have formed any intention of writing the First Treatise; and those which hold that it was not started until Locke had written at least the main part of the First. The second is of course the traditional view, and one that was taken for granted before Laslett's work; its most notable defender has been Richard Ashcraft, who has accepted Laslett's demolition of the 1689 dating, but has diverged from him in ascribing the Second Treatise to the period after the dissolution of the Oxford Parliament in March 1681. Ashcraft's criticisms of Laslett have been accepted by several recent writers, notably David Wootton, Mark Goldie and John Marshall, but they themselves have not agreed with each other or with Ashcraft in their positive claims. The whole question is therefore worth examining again. (shrink)

This article describes the implications for religious toleration of various non-cognitive views of religious belief, especially those adopted by Thomas Hobbes, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, and Pierre Bayle. It suggests that while these men were of very different philosophical outlook, they did all share a deep hostility to the combination of clerical intolerance, scholastic philosophy, and pagan superstition that Hobbes labelled the Kingdom of Darkness. They all firmly held the view that the clergy should never wield power and they only (...) differed on the powers the civil authorities possessed over religion. (shrink)

J. R. and Philip Milton present the first critical edition of John Locke's Essay concerning Toleration, based on all extant manuscripts, and a number of other writings on law and politics composed between 1667 and 1683. Although Locke never published any of these works himself they are of very great interest for students of his intellectual development because they are markedly different from the early works he wrote while at Oxford and show him working out ideas that were to appear (...) in his mature political writings, the Two Treatises of Government and the Epistola de Tolerantia. With authoritative contextual guidance from the editors, this will be an invaluable resource for all historians of early modern philosophy, of legal, political, and religious thought, and of 17th century Britain. (shrink)

J. R. and Philip Milton present the first critical edition of John Locke's Essay concerning Toleration, based on all extant manuscripts, and a number of other writings on law and politics composed between 1667 and 1683. Although Locke never published any of these works himself they are of very great interest for students of his intellectual development because they are markedly different from the early works he wrote while at Oxford and show him working out ideas that were to appear (...) in his mature political writings, the Two Treatises of Government and the Epistola de Tolerantia. With authoritative contextual guidance from the editors, this will be an invaluable resource for all historians of early modern philosophy, of legal, political, and religious thought, and of 17th century Britain. (shrink)

J. R. and Philip Milton present the first critical edition of John Locke's Essay concerning Toleration, based on all extant manuscripts, and other writings on law and politics composed between 1667 and 1683. It is an invaluable resource for historians of early modern philosophy, legal, political, and religious thought, and 17th century Britain.

This book presents a collection of philosophical essays on freedom and tolerance in the Netherlands. It explores liberal freedom and its limits in areas such as freedom of speech, public reason, sexual morality, euthanasia, drugs policy, and minority rights. The book takes Dutch practices as exemplary test cases for the principled discussions on these subjects from the perspective of political liberalism. Indeed, the Netherlands may be viewed as a social laboratory in human tolerance. During the Cultural Revolution of the (...) 1960s, Holland took the lead in a global emancipation process towards a society based on equal freedom. It was the first country to legalize euthanasia, soft drugs and gay marriage. In the final sections, the book examines the question of whether the political murders on the politician Pim Fortuyn and the film director Theo van Gogh, the reactions to Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s film Submission, as well as the success of the populist politician Geert Wilders are signs of the end of Dutch tolerance. Although it recognizes that the political climate has taken a conservative turn, the book shows that the Netherlands still shows remarkable tolerance. (shrink)

In the history of philosophy, Fichte's thought marks a crucial transitional stage between Kant and post-Kantian philosophy. Fichte radicalized Kant's thought by arguing that human freedom, not external reality, must be the starting point of all systematic philosophy, and in Foundations of Natural Right, thought by many to be his most important work of political philosophy, he applies his ideas to fundamental issues in political and legal philosophy, covering such topics as civic freedom, rights, private property, contracts, family relations, and (...) the foundations of modern political organization. This volume offers the first complete translation of the work into English, by Michael Baur, together with an introduction by Frederick Neuhouser that sets it in its philosophical and historical context. (shrink)

This essay attempts to interpret John Rawls's concept of the state in his "Theory of Justice". His concept is not an analysis of the existing monopoly capitalist state. Such an analysis can be found in, for example, "The Fiscal Crisis of the State" by James O'Connor. Rawls's concept is, by contrast, not one of the actual state but of an idealized state. Ideals, though, touch reality at some point. At what point does Rawls's concept of the state touch reality? The (...) market is the key to a realistic interpretation of Rawls's concept of the state. His view of the market is even at the basis of his renowned principles of justice. The 'efficiency' and 'freedom' of the market are prized by Rawls and other liberal theorists. Income inequality and large capital concentration threaten these prized virtues of the market. Rawls requires a strongly interventionist state to counteract the dangers of monopoly. His idealized state intervenes, not to promote concentration in the manner of the monopoly capitalist state, but to promote greater equality. This equality is needed if the market is to display efficiency and freedom. It is through this intervention that the state promotes justice. Properly interpreted, the assurance problem on which Rawls bases the need for the state arises from market tendencies. The market enables initial advantages to be increased. This is ultimately why people with advantages support the market, whether the context is private ownership or bureaucratic control within so-called market socialism. The inequality resulting from increasing initial advantages interferes with efficiency and freedom. Rawls's state intervenes to preserve the market while restraining it. This can be seen as an attempt to preserve class society from itself. Consequently, Rawls's conception of justice is founded on classes. (shrink)

Responding to a student question, Professor Konvitz uses the incident of the Camden 28 assault on draft records to distinguish between revolution and civil disobedience. He then goes on to discuss Socrates’ understanding of religion, its basic aspects, and the nature of mysticism. In an effort to find true understanding of intellectual and moral concepts, mankind is reaching toward God. Socrates’ view of God was a monotheistic one, and he was consequently charged with heresy and subsequently condemned to death.

The Stoics recognized that man is social by nature and extended the horizon of human obligations to all of humankind, where the earlier Greek philosophers as well as the Hebrews saw these obligations limited to their own societies. Stoic philosophy had a major impact on the early Church as it became a missionary religion spread by Hellenized Christians of Jewish origins, such as Stephen and Paul. The cosmopolitan and all-embracing way they presented Christ’s message was especially effective, Dr. Konvitz argues, (...) as they brought it to the Gentile world. Mankind had a common father and that father was God. The Stoic philosopher, Epictetus, with his emphasis on freedom of the will and the brotherhood of man, is quoted at length. (shrink)

Professor Konvitz states that John Locke was one of the most influential political philosophers of the last two centuries. Locke’s writings were the intellectual basis for many of the ideas embodied in the American Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights. Locke’s Second Treatise on Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration form the intellectual link between ancient, classical political thought and constitutionalism and modern democratic thought. More and Locke agree that man is created by God and has the laws of (...) nature to govern him. More takes man out of the state of nature and places him in a governed group with a civil order. Locke describes man in the state of nature as living according to reason without civil society. According to Thomas Hobbes, in Leviathan, man in a state of nature is in a state of war of all against all. Without government, Hobbes postulates, man is a beast. (shrink)

In the Second Treatise on Government and A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke spells out the hitherto only implied concept of human rights presumed by the concept of natural law. These include the right of property, which is derived from what is removed from the state of nature by the work of man’s body and his hands. To protect this property and to govern other aspects of human relationships and rights, civil society is established. Professor Konvitz explains the interaction of Marxist (...) thought with this labor theory of property. He also mentions the other inalienable rights that Locke identifies as life, property, religion, and the right to raise and educate a family. (shrink)

John Milton was not only the greatest English Renaissance poet but also devoted twenty years to prose writing in the advancement of religious, civil and political liberties. The height of his public career was as chief propagandist to the Commonwealth regime which came into being following the execution of King Charles I in 1649. The first of the two complete texts in this volume, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, was easily the most radical justification of the regicide at the (...) time. In the second, A Defence of the People of England, Milton undertook to vindicate the Commonwealth's cause to Europe as a whole. They are central to an understanding both of the development of Milton's political thought and the climax of the English Revolution itself. This is the first time that fully annotated versions have been published together in one volume, and incorporates a wholly new translation of the Defence. The introduction outlines the complexity of the ideological landscape which Milton had to negotiate, and in particular the points at which he departed radically from his sixteenth-century predecessors. Further aids to students include a full chronology of Milton's life and important contemporary events, a select bibliography and biographies of persons mentioned in the text. (shrink)

Resumo "O candomblé aceita o homossexualismo porque é uma religião que não tem pecado. Não interessa se você seja homem, mulher ou gay. Não importa a opção sexual. (...) Você pode ver. É uma religião de homossexuais". É assim que um filho-de-santo responde a uma pergunta sobre a notável presença de homossexuais iniciados na religião dos orixás. Se comparadas a outras denominações hostis e indiferentes às orientações não-heterossexuais, o candomblé e outras devoções afro-brasileiras são, de fato, mais tolerantes à participação (...) de homossexuais, permitindo-lhes ocupar todos os postos previstos na hierarquia ritual. Embora estejam entre as expressões religiosas que menos discriminam o indivíduo por razões de preferência sexual, percebemos por meio da literatura especializada e de uma pesquisa de campo, realizada na região metropolitana de São Paulo, que os candomblecistas também empregam em seus discursos argumentos ou narrativas míticas, certos princípios e valores seculares articulados à moralidade cristã e que dão sustentação à hierarquia de sexo/gênero - conforme alguns sacerdotes, as categorias homem/mulher e masculino/feminino devem corresponder às expectativas sociais esperadas para cada ser sexuado. Em virtude disso, tratar de homossexualidade nas comunidades-terreiro, ao contrário do que possa parecer, é um tema delicado, restrito e rodeado de tabus. Palavras-chave: Candomblé; Gênero; Sexualidade; Homossexualidade." Candomblé accepts homosexualism because it is a religion where sin does not exist. It does not matter whether you are a man, a woman or gay. Your sexual choice does not matter. [...] You can see it. It is a religion of homosexuals." This is how a filho-de-santo answers a question about the remarkable presence of homosexuals initiated into the orixás ' religion. If compared to other denominations, hostile or indifferent to nonheterosexual orientations, candomblé and other Afro-Brazilian religions are indeed more tolerant to the participation of homosexuals, allowing them to hold all positions in the ritual hierarchy. However, based on the literature and on a field research carried out in the São Paulo metropolitan region, we realized that those affiliated to candomblé , although following one of the religions with the lowest degree of prejudice against individuals due to their sexual preference, also employ in their discourse arguments or mythical narratives, secular principles and values articulated with Christian morality, which support the sex/gender hierarchy: according to some priests, man/woman and male/female categories must correspond to the social expectations of each sexual being. Thus, on the contrary, approaching homosexuality in Afro-Brazilian religious communities is a delicate and restricted matter, surrounded by taboos. Key words: Candomblé; Gender; Sexuality; Homosexuality. (shrink)

Fichte als politischer Schriftsteller - Fichtes Leben bis zur Berufung nach Jena - Fichtes vorkantische Zeit: Zufällige Gedanken und Aphorismen über Religion und Deismus - Die Revolution im Kopf - Kant und die Aktualisierung des revolutionären Engagements - Abstraktes Naturrecht und die Kategorie des emanzipierten bürgerlichen Bewußtseins: Gesellschaftsvertrag - Montesquieu und Rousseau - Theodor Schmalz: Das reine Naturrecht - Polemik gegen den Konservatismus: August Wilhelm Rehberg - Die Zurückforderung der Denk freiheit - Ober die Achtung des Staates für die (...) Wahrheit - Der Beitrag zur Berichtigung der Urteile des Publikums über die französische Revolution - Poli tiktheoretische Probleme der Revolutionsschriften: Staat und Gesellschaft - Freiheit und Gleichheit - Utopie - Der revolutionäre Vernunftbegriff und die Aktualität Fichtes. Zu Beginn des Krieges Preußens und des verbündeten Rußlands gegen Napoleon im Jahre 1806 erreichte die preußische Regierung ein Schreiben des Professors J. G. Fichte mit der Bitte, ihn zur moralischen Unterstüt zung der Armee als Redner mit ins Feld ziehen zu lassen. Das Gesuch, das die Behörden zweifellos in Verlegenheit gesetzt hat, wurde abgelehn- diese Art der Truppenbetreuung schien den Zuständigen damals nicht von so großer Bedeutung; eine Stelle, wie sie der Professor wünschte, zu schaf fen, waren sie weder bereit noch in der Lage. Fichte ließ sich dadurch nicht entmutigen; als die Regierung nach Königsberg auswich, folgte er ihr in der Absicht, auf jeden Fall beim preußischen Hof, seiner anerkann ten Obrigkeit, auszuharren. (shrink)

Tout l'arc de la production fichteenne est sous-tendu par l'effort de decrypter le chiffre de la Grande Revolution de 1789 et d'en conjurer l'echec. Le lecteur pourra reparcourir les differentes etapes de la complexe relation amour-haine que le philosophe allemand a entretenu avec la France, au fil de ce recueil qui reunit pour la premiere fois l'ensemble des jugements qu'il a portes sur la France et les Francais (comprenant quelques inedits), depuis son vigoureux engagement au service des ideaux revolutionnaires (...) jusqu'a son virulent engagement anti-napoleonien. Par-dela l'interet historique ou anecdotique que l'on peut concevoir a examiner la position de celui que l'on peut a juste droit qualifier de philosophe de la Revolution par excellence, se profile un interet proprement philosophique: derriere la question de la coherence de la lecture par Fichte du drame qui s'est joue au tournant du XIXe siecle, c'est la consistance de la philosophie de l'histoire et de sa conception de l'articulation entre la theorie et la pratique qui est en cause. De plus, comme les blessures ouvertes par la Revolution ne sont pas encore refermees, le disgnostic qu'il a prononce sur les insuffisances des principes qui l'ont guidee ne peut laisser indifferent. (shrink)

In his early reflections on the French Revolution, Fichte approaches the relationship between its present meaning and its theoretical as well as politico-philosophical relevance. The French Revolution is for Fichte particularly significant, because herewith human rights and the value of the human being in general are placed into the foreground. In his opinion, they are founded on a transcendental conception of freedom, which has also to be achieved in politics. Relating to the contents, freedom, equality, and equal worthiness (...) are asserted on principle. The subjects of this process are the human beings considered as autonomous, self-thinking, and self-judging persons. To participate wittingly in the procedure of affirmation and realization of their rights, they have to become acquainted with the basic aspects of the transcendental method. On the negative side, this method makes it possible to distance oneself from empirical reality, opening the way to free reflection; on the positive side, it provides the setting up and the reviewing of norms on an autonomous, individual, and nonetheless intersubjective as well as cooperative basis. From this perspective, Fichte also reviews the legitimacy of revolutions. He makes clear that the possibility of reforms is not excluded, but it represents a preferable solution for good constitutions, and that human rights are inviolable also in case of revolution.In den frühen Reflexionen Fichtes über die Französische Revolution wird vor allen Dingen das Verhältnis zwischen ihrer Aktualität und ihrer theoretischen sowie philosophisch-politischen Bedeutung thematisiert. Die Französische Revolution erlangt für Fichte eine besondere Bedeutung, weil hiermit die Menschenrechte und der Wert des Menschen überhaupt in den Vordergrund rücken, welche seines Erachtens auf einer transzendentalen Freiheit basieren, die auch in die Politik umgesetzt werden soll. Was die Inhalte angeht, werden die Freiheit, Gleichheit und Gleichwertigkeit der Menschen untereinander prinzipiell behauptet. Die Subjekte dieses Prozesses sind die Menschen als autonome, selbstdenkende und selbst urteilende Wesen. Damit die Menschen bewusst am Verfahren der Behauptung und Verwirklichung ihrer Rechte teilnehmen, liefert Fichte die ersten Ansätze für die transzendentale Methode, welche negativ eine Abstandnahme von der empirischen Wirklichkeit ermöglicht, die die freie Reflexion einleitet, und positiv die Aufstellung von Normen sowie ihren Nachweis auf eine autonome, individuell veranlasste und dennoch intersubjektiv kooperierende Weise erzielt. Unter dieser Perspektive wird von Fichte auch die Rechtmäßigkeit der Revolution überprüft. Es wird klargestellt, dass der Weg der Reformen nicht ausgeschlossen ist, sondern eine bevorzugte Lösung für gute Verfassungen darstellt, und dass die Menschenrechte auch im Fall einer Revolution unantastbar sind. (shrink)

Johann Gottlieb Fichte hielt im Sommer 1805 in Erlangen öffentliche Vorlesungen zum Thema 'Über das Wesen des Gelehrten und seine Erscheinungen im Gebiete der Freiheit'. In diesen Vorlesungen erläuterte Fichte sein Verständnis des Wesens und der Aufgabe des Gelehrten und führte in seine Philosophie ein. Dieser Text ist ein wichtiges Zeugnis nicht nur für die Entwicklung von Fichtes Philosophie, sondern auch für die Geschichte des Deutschen Idealismus und das Verständnis von Bildung und Wissenschaft im frühen 19. Jahrhundert. Dieser Band enthält (...) den Text von J. G. Fichtes 'Über das Wesen des Gelehrten' (1805) zusammen mit Interpretationen, die Fichtes Vorlesungen im Rahmen seines eigenen Werkes und im Kontext der Philosophie- und Geistesgeschichte verorten. Mit Beiträgen von Paul Cobben, Alfred Denker, Elisabeth Kessler, C. Jeffery Kinlaw, Wilhelm Metz, Angelica Nuzzo, Ernst-Otto Onnasch, Tom Rockmore, Annette Sell, Michael Vater, Richard Velkley, Franziskus von Heereman, Holger Zaborowski u.a. (shrink)

L'Essai d'une Critique de toute revelation parut sans nom d'auteur a Konigsberg. On salua unanimement la derniere Critique de Kant. Reinhold lui-meme s'y trompa. L'erreur rectifiee, le jeune Fichte fut ainsi publiquement eleve a la dignite de philosophe. Son oeuvre commencait. Bien que son auteur n'en ait jamais renie le resultat, cette Critique de toute revelation est, au sens fichteen du mot, un texte pre-critique. Le lecteur francais y trouvera expose le fondement ethique et religieux des Contributions destinees a rectifier (...) le jugement du public sur la Revolution francaise (1793) auxquelles il a depuis longtemps acces. Sa connaissance de la gestation du fichteanisme pourra ainsi etre completee. (shrink)

Über das Wesen des Gelehrten, und seine Erscheinungen im Gebiete der Freiheit (1805) von Johann Gottlieb Fichte -- Vorrede -- Erste Vorlesgun: Plan des Ganzen -- Zweite Vorlesung: Nähere Bestimmung des Begriffs der göttlichen Idee -- Dritte Vorlesung: Vom angehenden Gelehrten überhaupt; insbesondere vom Talente und Fleisse -- Vierte Vorlesung: Von der Rechtschaffenheit im Studiren -- Fünfte Vorlesung: Wie die Rechtschaffenheit des Studirenden sich äussere -- Sechste Vorlesung: Ueber die akademische Freiheit -- Siebente Vorlesung: Vom vollendeten Gelehrten im Allgemeinen -- (...) Achte Vorlesung: Vom Regenten -- Neunte Vorlesung: Vom mündlichen Gelehrte=Lehrer -- Zehnte Vorlesung: Vom Schriftsteller -- Menschliche Bildung und göttliche Idee. Über Struktur und Gedankengang von Fichtes Erlanger Vorlesungen Über das Wesen des Gelehrten / Annette Sell -- Über das Wesen des Gelehrten im Kontext der Wissenschaftslehre / C. Jeffery Kinlaw -- Fichte on Bestimmung and Wesen des Gelehrten / Angelica Nuzzo -- Fichte's Über das Wesen des Gelehrten, or the educated man as the salt of the Earth / Tom Rockmore -- Werkzeuge? Zur Herrschaft der Gelehrten im Kontext des Fichteschen Spätwerks / Franziskus von Heereman -- J.G. Fichtes Über das Wesen des Gelehrten und die Bestimmung des magister bei Thomas von Aquin / Wilhelm Metz -- Wie sich der Philosoph bei Descartes und Fichte zu sich selbst verhält / Elisabeth Kessler -- The ghosts of Kantian philosophy in Fichte's Über das Wesen des Gelehrten / Richard Velkley -- Reinhold über die Bildung eines neuen Menschen / Ernst-Otto Onnasch -- Die innerliche Verknüpfung von "objektiver Wissenschaft" und "subjektiver Bildung". Wilhelm von Humboldts Universitätsidee - mit einem Ausblick auf sein Kritik an Fichtes Überlegungen zum Gelehrten und zur Universität / Holger Zaborowski -- Die Todesangst als die Vermittlung zur absoluten Idee / Paul Cobben -- Fichte and Schelling / Michael Vater -- Fichtes Über das Wesen des Gelehrten und Heidegger / Alfred Denker. (shrink)

Frontmatter -- Vorrede des Herausgebers -- Inhaltsanzeige des sechsten Bandes -- Zurückforderung der Denkfreiheit von den Fürsten Europens, die sie bisher unterdrückten, 1793 -- Beitrag zur Berichtigung der Urtheile des Publicums über die französische Revolution, 1793 -- Einige Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten, 1794. -- Ueber das Wesen des Gelehrten, und seine Erscheinungen im Gebiete der Freiheit, 1805 -- Ueber die einzig mögliche Störung der akademischen Freiheit, 1812.

Empört über den zunehmenden Einfluß revolutionsfeindlicher Publikationen, wollte Fichte mit seinem anonym erschienenen Beitrag wirksam in den aktuellen politischen Meinungsstreit eingreifen. Dabei verstand er das Recht auf Revolution als Befugnis jedes einzelnen, aus dem eigenen Staat auszuscheiden und mit Gleichgesinnten politisch souveräne Verbände zu konstituieren, die verpflichtet sein sollten, in friedlich-naturrechtlichen Beziehungen miteinander zu leben.

Scholarship on Kant's practical philosophy has often overlooked its reception in the early days of post-Kantian philosophy and German Idealism. This volume of new essays illuminates that reception and how it informed the development of practical philosophy between Kant and Hegel. The essays discuss, in addition to Kant, Hegel and Fichte, relatively little-known thinkers such as Pistorius, Ulrich, Maimon, Erhard, E. Reimarus, Reinhold, Jacobi, F. Schlegel, Humboldt, Dalberg, Gentz, Rehberg, and Möser. Issues discussed include the empty formalism objection, the separation (...) between right and morality, freedom and determinism, nihilism, the right to revolution, ideology, and the limits of the liberal state. Taken together, the essays provide an historically informed and philosophically nuanced picture of the development of post-Kantian practical philosophy. (shrink)

Fichte’s hostility towards Napoleon, as expressed in his lectures of 1813 on the theory of the state, has its origin at the level of principles, and his always very strong admiration for the figure of Napoleon is at the same time so negatively loaded, that Napoleon becomes for Fichte something like an arch-enemy, the enemy par excellence. Napoleon has turned the old European political world upside down in favor of a re-structuration of this order according to the principles of the (...) French Revolution. This is, at least, how Napoleon was seen by the traditional powers that he had caused to fall or that he had shaken them with lasting political and historical consequences. Goethe, Hegel and Fichte have seen him in this perspective with very different attitudes. In this context, Fichte’s hostility towards Napoleon can be considered, at least partially, as a hostility towards the principles of the Revolution. But if these principles represent something like the normative self-understanding of political modernity at all, then the political philosophy of Fichte can be understood as strongly critical to these principles, if not simply as reactionary. It is worthwhile to consider why such a critical and even reactionary position can be derived in a completely consistent way from this philosophy, which has as its center a radicalized concept of freedom, and which at the beginning had even welcomed the outbreak of the Revolution.Die Feindschaft Fichtes gegen Napoleon, so wie sie später in seinen Vorlesungen von 1813 über die Staatslehre Ausdruck findet ist eine Feindschaft, die ihren Ursprung auf der Ebene von Grundsätzen hat, und die die immer sehr starke Bewunderung Fichtes für die Figur von Napoleon so negativ belastet, dass dieser am Ende zwar zu einem tief bewunderten, aber auch zu einem prinzipiellen Erzfeind wird. Nun hat Napoleon die alte europäische politische Welt auf den Kopf gestellt zugunsten einer Umstrukturierung dieser Ordnung nach den Prinzipien der französischen Revolution. So wenigstens ist Napoleon von den traditionellen Mächten, mit denen er sich auseinandergesetzt und die er zum Sturz oder ins Schwanken gebracht hat, empfunden worden. Und so haben Hegel, Goethe und auch Fichte ihn gesehen. Die Feindschaft Fichtes gegen Napoleon muss sich also zumindest teilweise als eine Feindschaft gegen die Prinzipien der Revolution verstehen lassen. Wenn aber diese Prinzipien so etwas wie die normative Selbstauffassung der politischen Moderne überhaupt bestimmen, dann ist die politische Philosophie Fichtes sehr kritisch zu dieser Selbstauffassung oder einfach reaktionär. Und es lohnt sich zu prüfen, warum gerade aus dieser Philosophie, in deren Mittelpunkt ein radikalisierter Begriff von Freiheit steht und die am Anfang den Aufbruch der Revolution sogar begrüßt hat, eine so kritische oder gar reaktionäre Einstellung, und zwar auf eine sehr konsequente Weise sich ergibt. (shrink)

In this study of Fichte's social and political philosophy, David James offers an interpretation of Fichte's most famous writings in this area, including his Foundations of Natural Right and Addresses to the German Nation, centred on two main themes: property and virtue. These themes provide the basis for a discussion of such issues as what it means to guarantee the freedom of all the citizens of a state, the problem of unequal relations of economic dependence between states, and the differences (...) and connections between the legal and political sphere of right and morality. James also relates Fichte's central social and political ideas to those of other important figures in the history of philosophy, including Locke, Kant and Hegel, as well as to the radical phase of the French Revolution. His account will be of importance to all who are interested in Fichte's philosophy and its intellectual and political context. (shrink)

Hegel’s treatment of ‘Moralität’ in both the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Philosophy of Right provides important clues as to how he conceives the recognitive dynamics of modern moral life. As ‘spirit that is certain of itself’, morality as comprehended in the Phenomenology is the final form of spirit [Geist], which, in Hegel’s exposition, follows ‘reason’ which itself had followed ‘consciousness’ and ‘self-consciousness’. Spirit had first been considered in its objective form as an ‘in itself’. This was the ‘true spirit’ (...) of the ethical world of antiquity. As something ‘for itself’, spirit had then been considered in its self-alienated form as ‘culture’ which had culminated in an analysis of modern politics—specifically the political project of ‘absolute freedom’, the French Revolution, and the terroristic consequences that had been so acutely linked to the modern rationalist political project by Schiller. But, as many have pointed out, if Rousseau was the theorist of the modern political struggle for autonomy, Kant had an equally revolutionary conception of moral autonomy, which, like Rousseau, put the idea of a self-legislating will at the centre of thought. Such an internalization of the self-legislating will, however, now reveals the proper object for judgment in terms of the evaluative polarity of good and bad—the will itself. This evaluation becomes the task of conscience. In this paper I examine Hegel’s treatment of the role of conscience in moral judgment in the light of his relationship to Fichte, and interpret it in terms of a broadly conceived pragmatics of reason-giving in moral life implicit in his concept of intersubjective recognition [Anerkennung]. (shrink)

This volume challenges the view that women have not contributed to the historical development of political ideas, and highlights the depth and complexity of women’s political thought in the centuries prior to the French Revolution. -/- From the late medieval period to the enlightenment, a significant number of European women wrote works dealing with themes of political significance. The essays in this collection examine their writings with particular reference to the ideas of virtue, liberty, and toleration. The figures discussed (...) include Christine de Pizan, Catherine d’Amboise, Isabella d’Este, Elizabeth I, Katherine Chidley, Elizabeth Poole, Margaret Cavendish, Damaris Masham, Mary Astell, Elizabeth Carter, Catharine Macaulay, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Cornélie Wouters. These women actively contributed to the political practice and discourse of their times. Some of the women question their exclusion from political power and argue in favour of women’s virtue, prudence, and capacity to govern. Others aim to demonstrate women’s spiritual equality with men, to defend liberty of conscience, and to highlight the importance of education as a means to moral development. And some women explore the notion of female citizenship or attempt to come to terms with issues of religious freedom and religious toleration. -/- Virtue, Liberty, and Toleration serves as an introduction to a rich and as yet under-explored period in the history of women’s ideas. (shrink)

My aim in this chapter is to address what looks like a tension in Fichte’s derivation of ethical content for the moral law in his System of Ethics. In the first place, Fichte seeks to derive the content of our duties from our “natural drive [Naturtrieb],” which he defines in terms of our striving for enjoyment. But later in the book we find a second argument that derives the content of our duties from what Fichte calls the conditions of our (...) “I-hood [Ichheit],” namely, our embodiment, intelligence, and sociality. I argue that a careful rereading of Fichte’s notion of a natural drive is consistent with this second derivation. The key to this reading lies in Fichte’s effort to reframe the natural drive through the category of “reciprocal interaction [Wechselwirkung],” which allows us to view the natural drive as a “formative drive [Bildungstrieb]” that is both active and passive. For Fichte, the formative drive amounts to a striving for self-organization, and this striving, I argue, prefigures what becomes the ethical drive to engage in reciprocal interaction with other members of the rational community. (shrink)

The university is promoted as 'a place from where to speak'. Academic freedom is examined as a crucial value in an increasingly uncertain age which resonates with Barnett's concern to encourage students to overcome their 'fear of freedom'. My concern is that the putative university space of freedom and autonomy may well become constricted by those who would limit not just our freedom to speak but also our freedoms to be and to do. Without academic freedom students and teachers, who (...) might be able to fly, will not be permitted to fly. I review issues of academic freedom and free speech raised especially by Berlin, Voltaire, von Humboldt, Mill, Milton and Rorty. I discuss problems raised when free speech is heard by others as harmful and offensive to their beliefs and values. I offer a set of suggestions to ensure that the university may envision itself as a space of freedom, pluralism and tolerance. Finally, I reflect that the university, of all democratic institutions, should be the one which best serves its society as 'a place from where to speak'. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Journal of the History of Ideas 62.1 (2001) 141-160 [Access article in PDF] The Politics of Character in John Milton's Divorce Tracts David Hawkes nunquam privatum esse sapientum --Cicero I. There has recently been a great deal of debate over the relative influence on Milton's politics of two discordant revolutionary ideologies: classical republicanism and radical Protestant theology. 1 In the mid-seventeenth century the search for intellectual precedents and rationalizations (...) of the English revolution brought these two traditions into an uneasy alliance, and Milton, like many other revolutionary apologists, drew on both of them. Of course the two schools of thought are not necessarily incompatible. J. G. A. Pocock notes one point of connection between them: The context in which men attain their final end--or recover their prima forma, though this concept might not have been antinomian enough for the radical saints of the New Model--is that of apocalypse; the "end" of Aristotelian teleology is still united with the eschatological "end" of prophetic time. 2The Aristotelian "end" of man is the good, defined as "an activity of soul in accordance with virtue," and the belief that one can or has fulfilled that end is [End Page 141] certainly amenable to Protestant antinomianism. 3 Furthermore, as Sharon Achinstein points out, Milton's "conception of virtue... melds the religious notion of conscience with a classical sense of civic duty." 4 On the other hand there are significant differences between the classical and the Christian notions of "virtue" and the "good," which dictate that, as Nigel Smith puts it, "[c]lassical republicanism, properly conceived, would in many ways be in conflict with the millenarian, chiliastic and perfectionist Protestantism of the sects." 5 The problem faced by Milton as a Protestant Republican is that the definition of the "good" offered by millennial sanctification and that attainable through Aristotelian virtue are in many ways mutually exclusive and contradictory. They have been characterized as such ever since Augustine's City of God asserted that pagan ethics are incompatible with true, Christian virtue. 6 Millennialism relies on faith; civic humanist virtue relies on works. Antinomianism abolishes the law; republicanism institutes the rule of law. The saints are sanctified by grace; the virtuous are distinguished by their own strength of character. Radical Protestant freedom is negative and private--it is the ability to speak and worship according to the dictates of conscience; civic humanist liberty is positive and public, the ability to participate fully in the government of the res publica. While daunting, however, these contradictions are not quite insuperable. I believe that Milton finds a common denominator in the accounts given by these two traditions of psychological objectification and that the agreement of Roman and Christian morality on this point leads him to make the tendency to objectification (or rather the ability to resist that tendency) the central issue of his mature political theory.The political ideas of the classical republicans and their descendants, the Renaissance civic humanists, were based upon Aristotle's Politics and Nico-machean Ethics, while the intellectual sources of radical Protestantism can be traced to Luther's commentaries on Paul's epistles. During the English revolution the Pauline exegesis of the relationship between the old and the new covenants provided intellectual ammunition against custom and tradition, as well as inspiring the antinomianism of the radical fringe to which Milton was falsely accused of adhering during the divorce controversy. In the divorce tracts Milton points out that Aristotle and Paul share one fundamental tenet: they argue that interior and exterior slavery are of the same nature and therefore concomitant [End Page 142] and inseparable. Furthermore, Milton notes, Aristotle and Paul both claim that exterior and interior slavery consist in "carnality," the subjection of the spirit to the flesh. This identification of carnality with servility becomes a constant strain which runs throughout Milton's career and provides the consistent element in his apparently vacillating theories of politics and religion.II. Although this argument recurs throughout Milton's career, it is first hammered into shape during the divorce controversy... (shrink)