Fichte, Immanuel Hermann Von

Fichte, Immanuel Hermann Von a German philosopher, the son of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, was born. at Jena, July 18, 1797. Although he had given himself to the study of philosophy, he was at first teacher in the gymnasium at Saarbriick, afterwards at Diisseldorf, and in 1835 at Bonn as professor of philosophy. In 1842 he was called to Tubingen, and died there, August 9, 1879, having been ennobled by the king of Wurtemberg in consideration of his great merits. His career as teacher and writer may be divided into two epochs. The first begins with his Beitragen zur Characteristik der neueren Philosophie (1829), and especially with his Ueber Gegensatz, Wenidspunkt und Ziel heutiger Philosophie (1832). During this period we find him in close connection with the Leipsic professor Weisse, with whom he labored for the destruction of the Hegelian system, out of which he tried to bring forth a speculative theism free from all rationalism. With his Speculative Theologie (1846), and System der Ethik (1850-53, 2 volumes), he closes this phase of development to give himself entirely to psychological speculation. To this second period belong his Anthropologie (1856; 3d ed. 1876), Psychologie (1864-73, 2 parts), and a number of monographs. His Vermischte Schriften zur Philosophie, Theologie und Ethik (1869) contain a part of his essavs contributed to the Zeitschriftful Philosophie und philosophische Kritik, which he edited alone from 1837 to 1847. The ground character of his philosophy was a positive religious one, directed against all and every kind of materialism. See Neue Evangelische Kirchenzeitung, 1879, page 585 sq.; Matter, in Lichtenberger's Encyclop. des Sciences Religieuses, s.v.; Zuchold, Bibl. Theol. 1:356. (B.P.)