Imagination and Reflection: Intersubjectivity: Fichte’s Grundlage of 1794

165 Pages·1982·6.947 MB·English

by  T. P. Hohler (auth.)

IMAGINATION AND REFLECTION: INTERSUBJECTIVITY
FICHTE'S: GRUNDLAGE OF 1794
MARTINUS NIJHOFF PHILOSOPHY LIBRARY
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IMAGINATION AND
REFLECTION:
TINTERSUBJECTnnTY
FICHTE'S GRUNDLAGE of 1794
by
T.P.HOHLER
-
•
SPRlNGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Hohler, T. P.
Imagination and reflection.
Includes index.
1. Fichte, Johann Gottlieb, 1762-1814. Grundlage
der gesammten Wissenschsftslehre. 2. Knowledge, Theory
of. 3. Imagination. 4. Intersubjectivity. I. Title.
II. Series.
B2824.H63 1982 193 82-17333
ISBN 978-90-481-8274-9 ISBN 978-94-015-7664-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-7664-2
Copyright © 1982 by Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
Originally published by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague in 1982
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1982
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Springer-Science+Business Media, B. V.
For Andre Schuwer,
dedicated scholar,
inspiring teacher,
lasting friend
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE IX
INTRODUCTION 1
I. PHILOSOPHY AS A SYSTEMATIC IDEAL 7
Philosophy as Wissenschaftslehre 8
The Methodology 13
This Dialectal Movement as a Whole 20
II. THE TRANSCENDENTAL IMAGINATION 25
The Independent Activity 26
1. The Formal Aspect or Quantitative Idealism 28
2. The Material Aspect or Qualitative Realism 29
3. The Synthetic Unity: Self-awareness as the !-character 30
The Relation or Interplay 33
1. The Relation in General 33
2. The I as Substance 37
3. Summation 40
The Transcendental Imagination:
A Synthetic Unity 42
1. Retrieval as a Preliminary Sketch for the Imagination 42
2. The Transcendental Imagination 44
3. A Further Analysis of the Transcendental Imagination 46
Striving and the Future 50
III. THE I AS INTERSUBJECTNE 59
The Deduction of the Other 61
The Foundation of the Deduction of the Other 68
1. The "Deduction" and the Imagination 69
2. The "Deduction of Representation" and lntersubjectivity 72
A Reflective Retrieve 89
Vlll
N. THE INTELLECTUAL INTUITION 93
Description of the Intellectual Intuition 94
The Intellectual Intuition as a Starting Point 99
The First Principle as a Starting Point 106
The Grundlage as a Grundlage 112
INTERSUBJECTIVITY AND REFLECTION 117
NOTES 121
BIBLIOGRAPHY 151
INDEX 157
PREFACE
This work resulted from my interests in several
flDldam ental issues of contemporary phenomenology.
Originally, their focal point was 1) the role and importance of
the subject in philosophical activity and 2) the subject's
finitude. To gain a perspective on these issues, a possible
approach seemed to lie in the direction of the transcendental
imagination and its relation to tim e. This focus on the
imagination, of course, led to Fichte's egological philosophy
that explicitly centers on the imagination. Here both issues
are raised together. The reader of the Fichtean texts cannot
for long hesitate to pose the question of intersubjectivity.
These three issues-imagination, reflection, and inter
subjectivity-formed the basis of the present work.
Since such a work could never be completed if it were
not for those num erot5 discussions and friendly conversation
with friends and colleagues with whom philosophy is always
alive, I wish to acknowledge my gratitude specifically to the
following people:
Professor Andre Schuwer, of Duquesne University, for his
encouragement, critical reading of the work, and his comments
that have greatly aided me in the writing of the present work;
Professor John Sallis, Chairman of the Philosophy
Department of Duquesne University, whose interest in Fichte
provided invaluable insights and approaches to the issues;
Professor Paul Ricoeur, University of Paris and
University of Chicago, whose reading and encouragement
greatly helped in the work's publication;
Professor Samuel Ijsseling, University of Leuven, who
introduced me to Martinus Nijhoff Publishers;
Professor G. A. De Brie, President of Tijdschrift voor
Filosofie, who granted me permission to use my article
''Intellectual Intuition and the Beginning of Fichte's Philosophy"
that had been previously published in Tijdschrift voor Filosofie;
Ms. Phyllis McLaughlin, whose secretarial and editing
assistance made a difficult and tedious task much easier.
X PREFACE
All translations from Germ an and French are my own.
The German text that I have followed is Johann Gottlieb
Fichte's Slimmtliche Werke edited by I. H. Fichte (Berlin, 1845-
46) that is readily available in individual volumes from Felix
Meiner Verlag and has been reissued as Fichtes Werke by
Walter de Gruyter &: Co. (Berlin, 1971). Although the recent
English translation of Peter Heath and John Lachs, Fichte:
Science of Knowledge with First and Second Introductions
(New York, 1970), has been occasionally consulted, my
translation differs considerably in key points and terms.
T.P.H.
Pittsburgh, PA