ABSTRACT
In 1786 and 1787, Karl Leonhard Reinhold (1757-1823), a former Catholic monk turned Freemason, published a series of letters on the Kantian philosophy, which together constituted the first popular and influential account of Kant’s critical philosophy. The success of these articles (later to be expanded into book form) led to Reinhold’s appointment at the University of Jena to a chair in critical philosophy-the first such position to be established in the new philosophy emanating from Königsberg. Reinhold held this position until 1794, and under his influence Jena became a unique centre for the pursuit of the new style of intellectual inquiry. It was, however, Reinhold’s successor at Jena from 1794 to 1799, Johann
Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), who was the first to establish this distinctively “German” form of idealism into a major force in philosophy. Claiming to be following the “spirit” if not the “letter” of Kant’s philosophy, Fichte worked on building a system of philosophy that he named the Wissenschaftslehre (the “doctrine of science”). The initial direction of the series of attempts to construct the Wissenschaftslehre was set by Fichte’s response to sceptical attacks on Reinhold’s earlier project, especially that by the Humean G. E. Schulze, who wrote under the pseudonym of “Aenesidemus”. During the later 1790s, Fichte extended his approach into a theory of rights and ethics, in the former introducing the notion of “recognition” (Anerkennung), which would later be a crucial concept for Hegel. Fichte left Jena in 1799, after having been forced to resign his university position because of accusations of “atheism”, and he moved to Berlin. When the University of Berlin opened in 1810, Fichte became the first head of its Faculty of Philosophy. It was via the philosophy developed in his Jena years, however, that Fichte was to have the most influence.
