ABSTRACT
In the fall of 1798, shortly after J. G. Fichte's "On the Ground of Our Belief in a Divine World-Governance" and F. K. Forberg's "Development of the Concept of Religion" were published in the Philosophisches Journal, an anonymously written pamphlet, signed G and entitled A Father's Letter to his Student Son about Fichte's and Forberg's Atheism, began to circulate throughout Saxony. Despite his expressed interest in philosophy, the Father's grasp of transcendental idealism is as meager as his opinion. He regards the critical philosophy as a single doctrine founded by Immanuel Kant, canonized by the faithful disciples Reinhold and Fichte, and proselytized by their student Forberg and other frivolous youths who so enjoy making converts. Their philosophy, he says, is simply a novel version of malign skepticism that has persisted from antiquity to modernity. Ultimately, Fichte and Forberg do not believe in God, or even moral world order, because, ultimately, Kant and his idealist sycophants do not believe in anything.
