ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that the function of the imagination provides a pivotal premise in J. G. Fichte argument for political obligation, specifically an argument designed to convince a prudent rational agent that her self-interests would be secured by entering a commonwealth. It discusses the Fichte’s argument for the weakness of natural right and contracts, a weakness that highlights the fragility of natural right based principally on the lack of entailment between establishing a rightful relation between different individuals and perpetuating that relation. The chapter describes a Fichtean argument for political consent and show how the imagination informs the pivotal premise in that argument. Hypothetical justification of the rule of right therefore exposes the fragility of natural right and rightful relations Fichte readily acknowledges. Fichte must demonstrate how the state can deliver the requisite security claimed in the protection contract. Equally important, the imagination provides the key premise in Fichte’s argument for political consent.
