Breaking Through the epistemological mist: Fichte’s theory on Faith
In 1798, Johann G. Fichte published his consequential essay ‘On the Ground of our Belief in a Divine World-Governance’ (Über den Grund unsers Glaubens an eine göttliche Weltregierung) . Fichte presents in this essay the key points of his idea on faith, which is important and deeply embedded in the system of his philosophy. Both the content and the insufficiently clear manner of this essay cause a set of serious argument that is called the ‘Atheism Dispute’, which in consequence cased a disrepute on Fichte himself and finally the dismissing of him from his position in Jena University.
The ‘Atheism Dispute’ is not the arena we step into in this essay. However, after examine …show more content…
Fichte’s philosophy of faith
In his ‘Divine World-Governance’ essay, Fichte indicates at the beginning that a widely accepted idea about (the proving of) faith is in fact a confusion. This misunderstanding is that faith could and should be actually proved with the facility of human reason. He argues that, ‘we have taken the so-called moral proof of a divine world-governance (or any philosophical proof thereof) for an actual proof, that we seem to have assumed that belief in God should first be instilled in and demonstrated to humanity by means of those demonstrations.’ (pp. 21, )
On the contrary, philosophy can only explain fact and can ‘by no means produce facts, except to produce itself as a fact’ . Thus, what is required from philosophers is not a demonstration to convert the non-believer, but rather, according to Fichte, a derivation of the convictions of the believer. Fichte’s work is rather descriptive than demonstrative. He wants to uncover faith and the necessity of faith from a rational being. As he says in the ‘Divine World-Governance’ essay, ‘he [here refers to Fichte himself] is solely concerned with deriving these facts as such from the necessary activity of every rational being.’ Then, why does Fichte insist on this “deriving character” of his philosophical mission about
In 1798, Johann G. Fichte published his consequential essay ‘On the Ground of our Belief in a Divine World-Governance’ (Über den Grund unsers Glaubens an eine göttliche Weltregierung) . Fichte presents in this essay the key points of his idea on faith, which is important and deeply embedded in the system of his philosophy. Both the content and the insufficiently clear manner of this essay cause a set of serious argument that is called the ‘Atheism Dispute’, which in consequence cased a disrepute on Fichte himself and finally the dismissing of him from his position in Jena University.
The ‘Atheism Dispute’ is not the arena we step into in this essay. However, after examine …show more content…
Fichte’s philosophy of faith
In his ‘Divine World-Governance’ essay, Fichte indicates at the beginning that a widely accepted idea about (the proving of) faith is in fact a confusion. This misunderstanding is that faith could and should be actually proved with the facility of human reason. He argues that, ‘we have taken the so-called moral proof of a divine world-governance (or any philosophical proof thereof) for an actual proof, that we seem to have assumed that belief in God should first be instilled in and demonstrated to humanity by means of those demonstrations.’ (pp. 21, )
On the contrary, philosophy can only explain fact and can ‘by no means produce facts, except to produce itself as a fact’ . Thus, what is required from philosophers is not a demonstration to convert the non-believer, but rather, according to Fichte, a derivation of the convictions of the believer. Fichte’s work is rather descriptive than demonstrative. He wants to uncover faith and the necessity of faith from a rational being. As he says in the ‘Divine World-Governance’ essay, ‘he [here refers to Fichte himself] is solely concerned with deriving these facts as such from the necessary activity of every rational being.’ Then, why does Fichte insist on this “deriving character” of his philosophical mission about