Fichte's Vocation of Man: New Interpretive and Critical Essays

5. J. G. Fichte’s Vocation of Man: An Effort to Communicate

5 J. G. Fichte’s Vocation of Man An Effort to Communicate Yolanda Estes Introduction: The Atheism Dispute– A Failure to Communicate While I was writing my first and hitherto only defenses against the accusation of atheism, I was in fact in a foul mood; and afterwards it did not surprise me in the least that most people maintain that in these defenses I have only further incriminated myself. . . . I was accused from out of the blue; I could only defend myself from out of the blue, because I myself was speculating wherein the misunderstanding might reside. . . . I was not close to hitting on the right thing to do. —J. G. Fichte, “From a Private Letter”1 The appearance of J. G. Fichte’s “On the Ground of our Belief in a Divine World Governance” in 1798 led eventually to the Atheismusstreit, or athe‑ 79 1. The ellipses are mine. I condensed this passage from “From a Private Letter,” in AD, 253. “From a Private Letter” was originally published as “Aus einem Privatschreiben” in Philosophisches Journal einer Gesellschaft Teutscher Gelehrten IX, no. 4 (January 1800) and is available in GA I/6, 370–71. In this chapter, references to English translations of Fichte’s work and correspondence will be followed by corresponding references to the original German in GA, SW, or FiG placed in parentheses. 80 / YOLANDA ESTES ism dispute, which reached its nadir in April 1799 with Fichte’s forced resignation from the University of Jena.2 After spending the summer and fall of 1799 in Berlin, Fichte returned to Jena, where he completed a small book, Vocation of Man, and a brief missive, “From a Private Letter.”3 In the spring of 1800, Fichte settled in Berlin and, the next fall, published a short essay, “Concluding Remark by the Editor.”4 He had “withstood the worst” of the atheism dispute, so he was hoping for “better times” but still recuperating from the psychic cuts and bruises inflicted by his many adver‑ saries, who included his erstwhile heroes and advocates, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi and Immanuel Kant.5 Traditionally, Fichte’s “Private Letter” and “Concluding Remark” are perceived as the finale to his “youthful” transcendental idealist, atheistic 2. “On the Ground of Our Belief in a Divine World Governance” (AD, 21–29 [GA, I, 5, 347–57]) was originally published as “Ueber den Grund unsers Glaubens an ein göttliche Weltregierung” in Philosophisches Journal einer Gesellschaft Teutscher Gelehrten VIII, no. 1 (Jena/ Leipzig: Gabler, 1798). For more details in English on the history of the atheism dispute see Anthony La Vopa’s Fichte: The Self and the Calling of Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 368–424, henceforth abbreviated as FSCP; Daniel Breazeale’s introduction to EPW; Yolanda Estes’s entries “Controversies: Atheism, Pantheism, Spinozism” and “Fichte, Johann Gottlieb,” in The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, ed. Tom Flynn (Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2007), 217–19 and 328–29; and Yolanda Estes’s introduction and commentaries in AD. 3. BM (Die Bestimmung des Menschen, GA I/6, 181–309) was published soon after “Private Letter” in January 1800. 4. “Concluding Remark by the Editor” (AD, 276–81 [GA I/6, 411–16]) was originally pub‑ lished as “Erklärung der Herausgeber, die Fortsetzung dieses Phil. Journals betreffend” in the Philosophisches Journal einer Gesellschaft Teutscher Gelehrten X, no. 3 (September 1800): 245–60. Although this issue of the Philosophisches Journal was published in 1800, it was supposed to appear in 1798 and the greater part of “Concluding Remark” was probably complete at that time. 5. “Private Letter,” AD, 252–53 (GA I/6, 370–71). Jacobi (1743–1819) sent a letter con‑ demning the Wissenschaftslehre to Fichte on 21 March 1799 (GA III/3, 224–81), which he published as Jacobi an Fichte (Hamburg: Perthes, 1799). The English translation of this letter, Jacobi to Fichte, is published in Jacobi: The Main Philosophical Writings and the Novel Allwill, ed. and trans. George di Giovanni (Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 1994), 497–536, henceforth abbreviated as MPW. Kant published a “Declaration concerning Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre” renouncing Fichte in the Intelligencer of the AllgemeineliteraturZeitung , 28 August 1799 (AA, 12, 370). The English translation of this “Declaration” is published in Kant’s Correspondence, ed. and trans. Arnulf Zweig (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 559–61. J. G. FICHTE’S VOCATION OF MAN / 81 Religionslehre, or religious theory, whereas Vocation of Man is regarded as...