Fichte's various articulations of the Wissenschaftslehre ("theory of scientific knowledge") are self-conscious attempts to systematize Kant's critical philosophy. Fichte's notion of the pure I (ieh) serves as...Fichte's various articulations of the Wissenschaftslehre ("theory of scientific knowledge") are self-conscious attempts to systematize Kant's critical philosophy. Fichte's notion of the pure I (ieh) serves as the theoretical starting-point for his exposition of transcendental idealism, and in many ways this concept is analogous to Kant's notion of the transcendental unity of apperception explained in the Critique of Pure Reason. This paper argues that although Fichte and Kant agree on (1) the active nature of the pure I, (2) the distinction between pure and empirical apperception, and (3) skepticism concerning the possibility of theoretical knowledge of any positive (i.e., noumenal) content of the pure I, their respective notions of pure apperception differ in that Kant affirms the conceptual priority of the pure I to its objects while Fichte denies the same. Fichte's departure from Kant on this point foreshadows many later recognition theories of consciousness, e.g., those of Hegel and Marx.展开更多
The following paper seeks to understand Donald Trump as a“dialectical image”for the contradictions of neoliberal capitalism.Trump’s management style,as described in his Art o f the Deal,combines a fetishizing of en...The following paper seeks to understand Donald Trump as a“dialectical image”for the contradictions of neoliberal capitalism.Trump’s management style,as described in his Art o f the Deal,combines a fetishizing of entrepreneurial risk as a“lifestyle”with the insistence that it is not the entrepreneur but his targets who are ultimately exposed to risk.This suggests that we might understand the elevation of“deal-making”to a lifestyle as a characteristic of modernity that,with neoliberalism,is increasingly coming to the fore.Such a critique of modernity,I further argue,is anticipated by Fichte's Closed Commercial State with its intriguing dialectic of risk.I conclude by arguing that Trump's politics marks the rise of a new,specifically American style of Fascism--one that demands identification not with the state as supra-individual collective,but with an impersonal system governing over individual lives and rendering them precarious.展开更多
文摘Fichte's various articulations of the Wissenschaftslehre ("theory of scientific knowledge") are self-conscious attempts to systematize Kant's critical philosophy. Fichte's notion of the pure I (ieh) serves as the theoretical starting-point for his exposition of transcendental idealism, and in many ways this concept is analogous to Kant's notion of the transcendental unity of apperception explained in the Critique of Pure Reason. This paper argues that although Fichte and Kant agree on (1) the active nature of the pure I, (2) the distinction between pure and empirical apperception, and (3) skepticism concerning the possibility of theoretical knowledge of any positive (i.e., noumenal) content of the pure I, their respective notions of pure apperception differ in that Kant affirms the conceptual priority of the pure I to its objects while Fichte denies the same. Fichte's departure from Kant on this point foreshadows many later recognition theories of consciousness, e.g., those of Hegel and Marx.
文摘The following paper seeks to understand Donald Trump as a“dialectical image”for the contradictions of neoliberal capitalism.Trump’s management style,as described in his Art o f the Deal,combines a fetishizing of entrepreneurial risk as a“lifestyle”with the insistence that it is not the entrepreneur but his targets who are ultimately exposed to risk.This suggests that we might understand the elevation of“deal-making”to a lifestyle as a characteristic of modernity that,with neoliberalism,is increasingly coming to the fore.Such a critique of modernity,I further argue,is anticipated by Fichte's Closed Commercial State with its intriguing dialectic of risk.I conclude by arguing that Trump's politics marks the rise of a new,specifically American style of Fascism--one that demands identification not with the state as supra-individual collective,but with an impersonal system governing over individual lives and rendering them precarious.