Fichte, Johann Gottlieb (1762–1814)

German philosopher who developed a comprehensive form of subjective idealism, expounded in The Science of Knowledge (1794). He was an admirer of Immanuel Kant.

In 1792, Fichte published Critique of Religious Revelation, a critical study of Kant's doctrine of the ‘thing-in-itself’. For Fichte, the absolute ego posits both the external world (the non-ego) and finite self. Morality consists in the striving of this finite self to rejoin the absolute. In 1799 he was accused of atheism, and was forced to resign his post as professor of philosophy at Jena. He moved to Berlin, where he devoted himself to public affairs and delivered lectures, including Reden an die deutsche Nation/Addresses to the German People 1807–08, which influenced contemporary liberal nationalism.

Fichte was born in Silesia and educated at Jena and Leipzig. His Staatslehre/Theory of Politics describes a Utopian state founded on rational principles but with a tendency towards dictatorship.