Fichte and Pragmatism

Pragmatism, as a philosophical trend, is often labeled "Made in america." This is because pragmatism was born in the United States and, in a sense, is compatible with the character of the Americans. However, it is overlooked that around the time of the birth of pragmatism, many European intellectuals, especially German philosophers, immigrated to the United States. The center of their philosophical activity existed at the same time as the metaphysical clubs promoted by James, Pils, and Dewey, and also had a significant influence on the United States of the time. According to Bernstein in The Turn of Pragmatism, the early volumes of the Journal of Speculative Philosophy, founded in 1867, contained a large number of translations and commentaries on german classical philosophers such as Fichte. In addition, the panel discussion on Pearse's thought at the Eastern Part of the 2010 Annual Conference on American Philosophy also involved a lot of the influence of Fichte and Schelling. It can be seen that there is indeed a certain relationship between Fichte's philosophy and pragmatism.

　　Focus on reality and be effective

　　If pragmatism is regarded as a practical philosophy oriented to real life, the "pragmatic" color of Fichte's philosophy will be particularly clear. From the perspective of life philosophy, pragmatism directly leads to people's real life, emphasizes the utility and practical effect of life, and tries to guide people's behavior in order to avoid meaningless and worthless life. Pragmatism advocates that the concepts established for survival and development must conform to human practice. Fichte also made it clear in his speech, "I don't want to talk about something that might not be of any use to me." For Fichte, an abstract philosophical system divorced from life and action is meaningless. From the general point of view of Fichte's thought, his concern for real life, the primacy of practice, and the idea that everything should proceed from reality constitute the pragmatic elements of Fichte's philosophy.

　　Fichte has been particularly concerned with reality since the Berlin period. His ideas are closely related to his time and are the result of a focus on the evolution of real life. At the end of 1807, in the face of the invasion of the French Napoleonic army, the national disaster, Fichte was not afraid of life and death, with a strong sense of practical participation, fourteen public speeches not only inspired people, but also proved the utility of knowledge to society and the important role of thinkers at critical moments. From the point of view of utility, Fichte repeatedly stressed, "Wherever I am, I only understand the kind of things that have to do with my personal survival and happiness." Nothing exists except this, and the whole world actually exists only so that I can survive and enjoy happiness." In Fichte's view, the purpose of man's existence is the increasing perfection of his own morality, in making everything around him sensual and moral, and in doing so ultimately to make himself happier. Real people exist to achieve their own ends, and anything exists because it has important significance to us and the world in which we live.

　　Fichte's view of truth is particularly utilitarian and self-evident. Fichte rejects emptiness, conjecture and falsehood. He uses food as an example to illustrate that truth and knowledge serve our ends. "Something becomes my food and drink, not because of concepts, but because of hunger and thirst and its fulfillment." Knowledge arises first and foremost through the analysis of activities concerning the self, and is applied as a guide and self-determination of activities. Truth is truth because it provides enjoyment for real people and brings a pure satisfaction. The above is arguably a precursor to Pearse's "law of pragmatism": considering what meaningful effects our conceptual objects might have. Our concept of these effects, then, is all we have of the concept of objects.

　　Emphasize the future and advocate change

　　In the face of reality, Fichte advocated a changing, developing view of the world and opposed static, isolated views. In Fichte's case, "there is nothing lasting outside or within me, but only constant change", neither the truth nor the world in which we live is constantly changing and developing, and the immutable status quo does not exist, and the present situation is by no means the final and the best. Fichte embraced a worldview in which the evolution of the world was not yet complete and that the world was still "in the process of development." The world is changing rapidly, so we must not only see what is in front of us, but also look to the future and see the direction in which humanity is heading.

　　Fichte was interested in experience and facts, valuing "doables" and "consequences" and emphasizing action. Fichte's philosophy was future-oriented, skeptical of the certainty of Descartes' quest for, arguing that there was no ultimate truth. "The end of the pursuit of truth is that there is no truth or certainty at all." Something that we directly enshrine as dogma, we cannot fully understand it, and there will always be room for further refinement. He rejects both the completeness of conservatism and the predestined theory of God's sovereignty, arguing that, as the historical conditions of society change, the knowledge now regarded as truth will no longer apply, and we will have to overthrow it or perfect it, developing a higher stage of truth that is consistent with reality. Simply put, Fichte believed that truth was only a stopgap measure in our way of thinking, a temporary approach and strategy, a "compromise" of experience. In Fichte there is no absolute necessity or certainty, only reason and action.

　　Advocate action focus on rationality

　　The concern for the real world and the pursuit of utility truths make Fichte pay special attention to human action. "Action! Let's go! That's the purpose of our existence. In Fichte's view, the world we live in is a world of intentions and plans, and even "I" is changing. Therefore, we must actively act, take the initiative to intervene, rely on human subjective initiative and practice to create or transform things, achieve consistency in thinking and doing in practice, and regain the utility of truth in action. Like pragmatists, Fichte, known for his philosophy of action, was neither an absolute irrationalist nor a rationalist.

　　In His System of Ethics, Fichte makes it clear that "the primitive, initially expressed, but purely negative character of reason is action in accordance with concepts, in the activity of purpose." That is to say, in Fichte's view, reason is action, action is reason, and the two are the same. With regard to the relationship between practice and reason, Fichte, on the one hand, argues that "any philosophy that transcends direct consciousness is empty and unfounded, a useless illusion." Everything based on experience has no universal validity, and what is truly effective is what is completely in need of rationalization, that is, pure reason. This is because the existence of empirical things is fundamentally not dependent on itself, but on the fulfillment of external conditions. On the other hand, Fichte also points out that "all these general principles can be formed only through my free observation and contemplation of many facts, but in no way express a fact in themselves.". The self-acting judgment cannot be separated from the empirical conditions by which it makes judgments; reason alone is not enough; thought should be realized in the empirical world. Fichte attaches importance to the role of both reason and practice. It should be noted that fichte's reference to reason here refers to practical reason. That is to say, practice takes precedence over rationality, and practical rationality is the foundation of all reason.

　　Pragmatism is a very broad concept, and the conclusions reached by scholars at home and abroad on pragmatism are quite different, and even the pragmatists themselves generally lack consensus and accuracy in the use of this term. As Schiller (f. c. S. Schiler) put it, "The number of pragmatists may be as numerous as the number of pragmatists, at least in theory." However, many scholars have noticed a relationship between Fichte and pragmatism, either referring to the similarities between Fichte's anthropology and pragmatist theory; or arguing that some of Fichte's ideas inspired and influenced pragmatism; or directly indicating that Fichte was an early pragmatist, and that there was a relationship of inheritance and criticism between them. On closer examination, we will find that although pragmatism cannot be defined, there is indeed a clear relationship between Fichte's philosophy and pragmatism. In terms of content, both contain all aspects of life, involving a variety of topics and a wide range of topics; in terms of method, both are understood and elaborated through the reality of life, rather than having a rigorous logical system like traditional philosophy. Pragmatism as a method attempts to give a truthful explanation of the major philosophical problems encountered in life, and Fichte's philosophy also focuses on reality and responds to the problems of reality one by one. Their understanding of the individual in life, truth, its changes, and other issues is agreed in most respects. From the point of view of pragmatism as a philosophy of life, Fichte's pragmatism is stronger than ever.

　　(This paper is the phased result of the project "Emergent Marxist Research" (18zjqn04yb) by young scholars of Zhejiang Provincial Social Science Planning)

　　(Author Affilications: School of Marxism, Ningbo University)

Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Fang Huanfei Hu Huixiu

For more academic information, please pay attention to the official WeChat public account of China Social Science Network cssn_cn