Isaiah Berlin on ...
|
Some notes on the ideas of Rousseau as presented by Berlin.
These are directed towards separating out certain aspects of romanticism from those aspects of Rousseau's though whioh are
totalitarian, or in other ways more doubtful.
|
|
|
|
Introduction
Berlin tells us that Fichte's thought is transformed so radically through his life that we should think of there being three
quite different Fichte's.
They are the Fichte supporting unfetterd individualistic artistic expression, the Fichte advocating Platonic guardians, and
the Fichte of the master race.
These are all three aspects at different levels of the idea of Romantic self-assertion.
The self assertion of the individual artists, the guardians of society or of the master race, is not for all but for the select
few who have the required abilities (creativity...) and others either have the wisdom to see that they are right and to comply,
or lacking that wisdom, should be compelled to comply for their own good.
|
Fichte and Kant
Fichte takes "Kant's central notion" that "that the world as understood by men was as it was because of the forms imposed
upon it by the human mind", and turns this into an act of will.
The act of will is necessary to halt the regress of justification, in which the justification of some proposition requires
in turn to be justified.
The regress is terminated by act of will, and the will in this way shapes the world perceived.
"The world is that which we will it to be".
|
Fichte's Notion of Self
"The self becomes aware of itself in action, and in the beginning is action, not contemplation."
|
Making Ends
This is the feature of Fichte's thought which Berlin considers his most important innovation, and his most direct challenge
to the enlightenment, or indeed the whole previous thrust of Western philosophy.
"Fichte is the first thinker who explicitly says that ends are not discoverable but invented; they are not found, they are
made."
|
|
|