Johann Gottlieb Fichte: Gesamtausgabe / Reihe II: Nachgelassene Schriften. Band 11: Nachgelassene Schriften 1807-1810

Reinhard Lauth (Herausgeber), Hans Gliwitzky (Herausgeber), Peter K. Schneider (Herausgeber), Erich Fuchs (Herausgeber)

His departure from East Prussia signaled a new era in Fichte's scientific life. In his ›Spekulation zu Kopenhagen‹ he located as a »task« those points on which he wished to clarify and deepen his ›Wissenschaftslehre‹ even further. The draft of a ›Beantwortung des Jacobischen Schreibens von 99‹ served as the prospectus for »establishing a philosophical journal«, a project that soon had to be abandoned because of difficulties arranging for a publisher. Upon his return to Berlin, Fichte was commissioned by Minister Beyme to prepare for the Prussian government a ›Plan einer zu Berlin zu errichtenden höhern Lehranstalt‹. In this plan Fichte proposed that the Prussian University be modeled upon a college system. But Fichte's plan was rejected in favor of Wilhelm von Humboldt's ideas. Fichte's unpublished papers contain scarcely any references to his ›Reden an die Deutsche Nation‹ (December 1807 – March 1809). Following these lectures, Fichte was engaged in a general revision of his ›Wissenschaftslehre‹. These drafts show which problems Fichte thought still needed to be addressed, and they also demonstrate that his reflections on the philosophy of history during the years from 1806 to 1809 were also highly relevant to his conception of the Wissenschaftslehre. Fichte began his lectures at the then still unofficial University of Berlin with an ›Anleitung zur Kunst des Philosophierens‹, followed, in February and March of 1810, with lectures on the ›Wissenschaftslehre‹.