Johann Gottlieb Fichte: Biography Of This German Philosopher
Johann Gottlieb Fichte represents one of the founders of the philosophical movement known as German Idealism.
We will go through the life of this author to learn in more detail the most relevant episodes of his biography as well as his contributions to philosophy as one of the most relevant European thinkers of the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte was born in 1762 in Rammenau, a German municipality located in Bautzen, Saxony at that time a territory of Upper Lusatia, in the Electorate of Saxony.
He came from a family with a tremendously precarious economic situation. This meant that he had to collaborate from a very young age in the activities that his parents had as farmers, so it was not unusual for Johann to have to take care of the geese.
His childhood and early years
From a very young age, Johann Gottlieb Fichte showed great intelligence and talent for studies that, unfortunately, his family could not afford to provide him. But everything changed thanks to a fantastic coincidence.
It is said that a baron named Freiherr von Miltitz visited the town to attend the local church mass, but when he arrived, it had already ended. However, Some locals told him about a boy from the village who memorized everything and could surely repeat the sermon given by the pastor in full Von Miltitz went in search of him and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, indeed, accomplished the task. The baron, impressed by such ability, immediately decided to take care of the costs of his education, since he was aware that this talent could not be wasted, in any way.
This is how Johann Gottlieb Fichte moved to live with the family of Reverend Krebel, in the municipality of Niederau, on the outskirts of the city of Meissen, which meant that from then on contact with his family was going to be very limited. His education was based mainly on knowing the works and authors of classical, Greek and Roman antiquity.
His studies continued from 1774 in one of the most prestigious institutions that existed at that time, the Schulpforta school, in the city of Naumburg. Some of the greatest German authors have passed through this institute, such as the writer Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg, better known as Novalis, the brothers August Wilhelm Schlegel and Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel and a few decades later, Friedrich Nietzsche himself. .
Thanks to his years at this institution, Johann Gottlieb Fichte achieved an education available to very few. The counterpart is that It was a school with a lifestyle similar to that of a monastery, so their social relationships with peers were not as abundant as they could have been elsewhere. Perhaps this made Fichte an independent person with a tendency towards introspection, characteristics that would later be evident in his works.
Theology studies and interest in philosophy
By 1780 Johann Gottlieb Fichte had already finished his training at Schulpforta He decided to continue his training, this time via theology, for which he moved to the University of Jena, although the following year he would move to the University of Leipzig. However, there was a problem.
Although Baron von Miltitz continued to give him financial support, it was becoming less and less. Finally, von Miltitz died, so Fichte could not afford to study and had to leave the university.
A period of precariousness begins for Johann Gottlieb Fichte and he is forced to look for a way to earn an income. His excellent education allowed him to become a tutor for some wealthy families, caring for and educating his children. After several years He moved to Zurich, where he would spend the next two years, raising the children of a humble local family However, from then on several things would happen that would change his life forever.
First of all, he met Johanna Rahn, to whom he soon became engaged. He also met the Swiss pedagogue Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. It was at this time, in the year 1790, when Johann Gottlieb Fichte began to be interested in the work of Immanuel Kant. He contacted him, but the first meeting was not very fruitful. However, Fichte focused on creating an essay that would not go unnoticed by Kant, and it did. This is the “Attempt to criticize all revelation.” It was the year 1792.
As soon as he read it, Kant asked his editor to publish it. An unforeseen event occurred in this process, and that is that the work was published without the name of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, so the public attributed the authorship to Immanuel Kant, since they considered that only he was capable of writing an essay of such quality. After the incident, Kant would publicly admit the confusion, making it known that the real author was Fichte.
This event marked the emergence of Johann Gottlieb Fichte in the academic world as well as a large dose of reputation. So much so that the University of Jena offered him the opportunity to become a professor and teach philosophy at that institution. Another relevant event that occurred in 1793 was Fichte’s entry into a lodge of Freemasonry known as Modestia cum Libertate an entity that allowed him to interact with Johann Wolfgang Goethe, one of the most important authors in Germany of his time.
University of Jena and atheism dispute
While professor of philosophy at the University of Jena, Johann Gottlieb Fichte He began to teach his theories about the so-called transcendental idealism The content of his classes was compiled in the work titled The Vocation of the Scholar. The success of his talks was overwhelming. But something happened that would change everything. Fichte published an essay called On the Basis of Our Belief in a Divine World Government. It was the fuse that lit the so-called atheism dispute.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s work was criticized as atheistic, which in a fervently religious society was a serious problem. The first repercussion was his immediate dismissal from the professorship he held at the University of Jena. But his work was nothing more than the beginning, because throughout the atheism dispute, a multitude of authors decided to take part in the open debate, whether supporting one position or the opposite.
For example, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi wrote an open letter comparing philosophy, especially that developed by Fichte, with what he called nihilism, being the first time that this concept was used and which would later be developed by other authors, such as the aforementioned Friedrich Nietzsche.
The University of Jena received pressure from political figures to dismiss Fichte or they would not allow students from their respective areas of influence to enroll. However, Johann Gottlieb Fichte stated that in reality politicians They were not persecuting him for his words about atheism, but for other works in which he had shown his support for the ideals of the French Revolution which had taken place a few years before.
Indeed, it would be demonstrated that it was just as Fichte claimed. In reality, the fear of the governments was that the works in which this movement supported would gain too much strength and trigger revolutions similar to what the French country had experienced. Hence, personalities from Russia, Saxony or Austria were some of those who put the most pressure on the University for this author to immediately stop teaching his classes there.
This pressure following the atheism dispute not only led to the departure of Johann Gottlieb Fichte from the University of Jena, but also he had to move to Berlin, at that time belonging to the Kingdom of Prussia, since it was one of the few Germanic territories where he was not persecuted. In Berlin he was able to make friends with other great contemporary authors.
He also continued his introduction to Freemasonry, in this case thanks to the Hungarian ecclesiastic Ignaz Aurelius Fessler. He was in the Pythagoras lodge of the Burning Star. At first, both authors professed a great friendship. However, over time they became rivals. Fichte published two lectures on the relationship between philosophy and Freemasonry.
In the year 1800, Johann Gottlieb Fichte He published an extensive philosophical work in which he analyzed the concept of property as well as other economic issues Five years later he returned to the academic world, as the University of Erlangen provided him with a teaching position. Unfortunately, the Napoleonic Wars forced Fichte to move to Königsberg until 1807, when he would return to Berlin.
With the final fall of the Holy Roman Empire, Fichte was in charge of creating the Addresses to the German Nation, a document that attempted to lay the foundations of a new State, bringing together the Germanic peoples. He became the figure who encouraged the inhabitants of these regions against Napoleon’s invasion.
After these events he went on to teach classes at the newly created University of Berlin, of which he also became rector, although he soon resigned due to differences of opinion with the rest of the academics. Sadly, the war resulted in an increase in patients in hospitals. Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s wife was a nurse and became infected with typhus, a disease that she would transmit to Fichte and that would cause his death in 1814, when he was only 51 years old.
