Ep. 271: Johan Gottlieb Fichte's Transcendental Idealism (Part One)

On The Vocation of Man (1799), Books I and II. What is reality? Fichte's armchair journey starts him considering nature and thus himself as determined, but then he backtracks to say that actually, experience doesn't tell us whether we're determined or free. In Book II, he argues that since our experience is always of something going on in ourselves, then causality, the external world, the self, etc. must be our own mental creations. So we're free after all, yet everything is drained of significance! Part two of this episode is only going to be available to you if you sign up at partiallyexaminedlife.com/support. Get it now or listen to a preview. Sponsors: Learn about St. John's College at SJC.edu/PEL. Visit Brightside.com/pel for a free mental health assessment and up to $100 off your first month of treatment. Get $75 off your starter teeth-straightening kit via CandidCO.com/pel (code PEL). Get a loan to lower your monthly payments at Upstart.com/PEL.