Fichte's public "discourses on method," 1794–1801
a comparative study
pp. 23-46
in: Tom Rockmore, Daniel Breazeale (eds), Fichte and transcendental philosophy, Berlin, Springer, 2014Abstract
My goal here is straightforward: to illuminate Fichte's conception of how one actually "does' philosophy not by examining his actual practice in his scientific presentations of the Wissenschaftslehre, but by considering his discussions of this issue in his various "introductory" or, in his terminology, "critical"1 writings and lectures. More specifically, I aim to compare what he had to say about the distinctive "method" of the Wissenschaftslehre in 1794, in On the Concept of the Wissenschaftslehre, with what he wrote about this same topic in 1797, in his two Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre, and in 1801, in his Sun-Clear Report on the Essence of the Latest Philosophy, and to then to draw some general conclusions about the evolution of his conception of his own method between 1794 and 1801.
