Fichte-Studien

Volume 47, 2019

Fichtes Bildtheorie im Kontext, Teil I

Sein oder Geltung? Eine Deutungsperspektive zu Fichtes Lehre vom Absoluten und seiner Erscheinung

In Fichte research, there is no consensus on the interpretation of a topic of fundamental importance for Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre: the relationship of the absolute ‘in itself’ to its appearance. In addition to the difficulty of the matter in itself, the problems of understanding might also be related to the linguistic and terminological form of its presentation. My paper starts with the hypothesis, that an adequate understanding is actually decisively dependent on the dissolution of the ambiguity of the terminus “being”, which also occupies a prominent position in Fichte’s prima philosophia. Taking a distinction from Rudolf Hermann Lotze, I consider in a type of thought experiment whether and how Fichte‘s concept of the absolute qua absolute being (“Sein”, as a counter-concept to appearance / image / existence of the absolute) can be explained or replaced by the term validity (“Geltung”). It is also necessary to consider to what extent the idea of validity is already contained in Fichte’s “Theory of Truth”.