FICHTE, (1762-1814). An
illustrious German philosopher. He was born
the son of a ribbon-weaver, at Rammenau, in
Upper Lusatia, May 19, 1762. As a lad of promise
he attracted the attention of a neighboring
nobleman, Baron von Miltitz, who assisted him
in his early education. In 1776 Fichte was placed
at the gymnasium of Pforta, near Naumburg, and
in 1780 he entered the University of Jena, where, as subsequently at Leipzig, he studied theology and philosophy. During the years 1784 to 1788 he supported himself in a precarious way as tutor in various Saxon families. From 1788 to 1790 he taught in private families at Zurich, where he became acquainted with Pestalozzi. He then returned to Leipzig and in 1791 obtained a tutorship at Warsaw, in the house of a Polish nobleman. The situation, however, proved disagreeable, and the philosopher next proceeded to Königsberg, where he had an interview with Kant, of whom he had become an ardent disciple. He submitted his Kritik aller Offenbarung (Critique of all Revelation) to that philosopher, who praised it highly, and advised him to publish it. The following year it appeared anonymously, and was credited to Kant, who then made known its authorship. This incident established Fichte's fame as a philosopher. In 1794 he was appointed to the chair of philosophy at Jena, where he commenced to expound with extraordinary zeal his system of ‘transcendental idealism.’ In 1795 he published
his Wissenschaftslehre (Doctrine of Science), in
which he clearly broke away from Kant, whose
speculations did not seem to him sufficiently thorough. In 1796 he published Grundlage des Naturrechts (Foundation of Natural Rights); in 1798, System der Sittenlehre (System of Ethics), and in the same year an article in a philosophical journal, which cost him dear. It was entitled “Ueber den Grund unsers Glaubens an eine göttliche Weltregierung” (The Basis of Our Belief in a Divine Government of the World). For views therein expressed he was charged with atheism, inasmuch as he had characterized God as the living moral order of the world. In vain did he deny the atheistic nature of this doctrine; the odium theologicum was too strong for him, and he was compelled to relinquish his chair. Fichte went to Berlin, where he delivered lectures to audiences composed of men of distinction, and where he made friends of such men as Schlegel, Schleiermaeher, and Tieck. In 1805 he was appointed to a professorship in Erlangen. The approach of the French army drove him in 1806 to Königsberg, and in 1807-08 he delivered his famous “Addresses to the German Nation” (“Reden an die deutsche Nation”) in Berlin. These addresses were full of the most exalted enthusiasm. The Prussian King appreciated the zeal of the eloquent metaphysician, and, on the restoration of peace, appointed him to a professorship in the newly founded University of Berlin. In 1810 the university was opened with a host of brilliant names — Fichte, Friedrich August Wolf, Wilhelm von Humboldt, DeWette, Schleiermacher, and Savigny. By the votes of his colleagues Fichte was unanimously elected rector. In 1813 the War of Liberation broke out, and the hospitals of the Prussian capital were soon crowded with patients. Fichte's wife was one of the first to offer her services as a nurse. For five months she tended the sick with all the patient tenderness and devotion of her nature. At last she was seized with typhoid fever, and after a fearful struggle she recovered; but her husband caught the infection, and died January 27, 1814.