Fichte

1848 · 154 — <b>First edition of the English translation. Pencil underlining and marginalia. Previous owner's signature John Dunlop. Some foxing. Small tears to cloth at ends of spine. Boards have some rubbing. Some minor damp staining to endpapers. ; xii 13-198 pages 2 pages advertisements. Publisher s Blind-stamped black cloth boards with the embossed emblem of the catholic series on the covers. Page dimensions: 196 x 120mm. A very good copy of a work rarely found anywhere near collectible condition now wrapped in a clear acid-free Mylar cover. First edition of the English translation by William Smith. Fichte identifies three distinct stages in the development of human existence and the striving for conscious knowledge both theoretical and practical: 1. doubt 2. knowledge 3. faith. Fichte published his famous Wissenschaftslehre an "essay towards a critique of all revelation" which was an exposition and clarification of Kant's work in 1794. He followed up over the next few years covering the theoretical side of his system. Here Fichte reaches for the source of human knowledge arriving at two conflicting views of human existence: Humans are subject to the cause-and-effect laws of nature yet their ability to reason will raise humans above the strict necessity that controls the natural world. He concludes that our vocation "is not merely to know but to act in accordance with our knowledge." Fichte 1762-1814 was a German philosopher one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism often perceived as a figure whose philosophy forms a bridge between the ideas of Kant and the German idealist Hegel. FIRST EDITION OF THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION. </b> John Chapman hardcover