Fichte’s troubles with a state

Abstract

Fichte?s relation towards the institution of the state is directly dependent on how the notion of freedom was developed in his philosophy. However, his understanding of freedom was transformed dynamically from freedom understood in a distinctly individualistic way as the absence of any obligations (early Fichte) to legally grounded freedom in a state institution that implies restricting one?s freedom by the freedom of others (mature phase). Accordingly, Fichte?s attitude towards the notion of the state changed - from its understanding as an external institution that should only enable the individual?s freedom and eventually disappear to the understanding of the state as the only guarantor of human liberation and the original place for freedom. However, in his late phase, Fichte would abandon such an idea of the state again and develop a new concept of national education that should do what the state failed to do. Therefore, we must conclude that Fichte does not have an exact position on the relationship between the state, man, and freedom as the highest goal.