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 know 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 eighteenth century and early XIX.

• Related article: "Types of philosophy and main currents of thought"

Brief biography of Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Johann Gottlieb Fichte was born in 1762 in Rammenau, a German municipality located in Bautzen, Saxony., at that time 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 uncommon 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 a talent for studies that, unfortunately, his family could not afford to provide him with. But everything changed thanks to a fantastic coincidence.

It is said that a baron named Freiherr von Miltitz visited the town to attend mass at the local church, but when he arrived, it was already over. 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 looking for him and Johann Gottlieb Fichte, indeed, fulfilled the task. The baron, impressed by such ability, immediately decided to bear the costs of his education, since he was aware that this talent could not be wasted, in any way. manner.

This is how Johann Gottlieb Fichte moved to live with the Reverend Krebel's family in the municipality of Niederau, in the outskirts of the city of Meissen, which implied that from then on his contact with his family was going to be very reduced. His education was based mainly on knowing the works and authors of classical, Greek and Roman antiquity.

His studies continued from the year 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 himself Nietzsche.

Thanks to the years in this institution, Johann Gottlieb Fichte achieved an education within the reach of very few. The tradeoff is that it was a school with a lifestyle similar to that of a monastery, so his social relationships with peers were not as abundant as they might have been elsewhere. Perhaps this favored that Fichte was an independent person with a tendency towards introspection, characteristics that would later become evident in his works.

Studies in theology and interest in philosophy

By the year 1780 Johann Gottlieb Fichte had already completed his training at Schulpforta. He decided to continue his formation, this time by way of theology, for which he transferred to the University of Jena, although the following year he would transfer to the University of Leipzig. However, there was a problem.

Although Baron von Miltitz continued to give him financial support, this was less and less. Finally, von Miltitz died, so Fichte could not afford the studies and had to leave the university.

A precarious stage begins for Johann Gottlieb Fichte and he is forced to find 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, he met Johanna Rahn, to whom he soon got 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 take an interest 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. It is about the "Attempt to criticize all revelation". It was the year 1792.

As soon as he read it, Kant asked his publisher 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 fact meant the coming-out of Johann Gottlieb Fichte in the academic world as well as a large dose of reputation. So much so, that the University of Jena proposed him to be a professor and teach philosophy at that institution. Another relevant event that occurred in the year 1793 was Fichte's entry into a Freemasonry lodge known as Modestia cum Libertate, an entity that allowed him to relate to Johann Wolfgang Goethe, one of the most important authors in Germany of his time.

University of Jena and atheism dispute

As a professor of philosophy at the University of Jena, Johann Gottlieb Fichte he began to teach his theories on the so-called transcendental idealism. The content of his classes was compiled in the work entitled La vocation del erudito. 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 branded as atheistic, which in a fervently religious society was a serious problem. The first repercussion was the immediate removal of him from the chair he held at the University of Jena. But his work was nothing more than the beginning, because through the dispute over atheism, a multitude of authors decided to take part in the open debate, either 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 that would later be developed by other authors, such as the aforementioned Friedrich Nietzsche.

The University of Jena came under pressure from political figures to remove Fichte or they would not allow students from their respective areas of influence to enroll. However, Johann Gottlieb Fichte claimed that politicians actually they were not persecuting him for his words on 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 earlier.

Indeed, he would be shown to be just as Fichte claimed. In reality, the fear of the governments was that the works in which they supported this movement would take too much force and unleash revolutions similar to the one that the French country had experienced. Hence, personalities from Russia, Saxony or Austria were some of those who put the most pressure on the University so that this author immediately stopped teaching his classes there.

• You may be interested in: "Moral nihilism: what it is and what this philosophical position proposes"

Transfer to Berlin and last years

This pressure as a result of 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, because 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 churchman 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 came to publish two conferences about 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 position as a professor. 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 commissioned to create the Addresses to the German Nation, a document that tried 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 the invasion of Napoleon.

After these events he went on to teach at the newly created University of Berlin, of which he also became rector, although he soon resigned due to a difference of opinion with the rest of academics. Sadly, the war resulted in an increase in patients in hospitals. Johann Gottlieb Fichte's wife was a nurse and was infected with typhus, a disease that would be transmitted to Fichte and that would cause her death in 1814, when she was only 51 years old.

Bibliographic references:

• Breazeale, D. (2001). Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• Oncina, F. (2013). Johann Gottlieb Fichte. Complete work. Library of Great Thinkers. Madrid: Editorial Gredos.