ABSTRACT
Within the common historiography of theology and philosophy, Immanuel Hermann Fichte (1796–1879) is—if at all—regarded as a not very original successor to German Idealism and Classicism, as epigone and “speculative comrade” 1 of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831). Together with his younger friend Christian Hermann Weiße (1801–66), a philosopher from Leipzig, I.H. Fichte is one of the representatives of the so-called “late idealism.” The prefix “late” also designates the usually disparaging assessment of his thinking. This widespread confirmation of his philosophical insignificance can surely—at least on the face of it—also be put down to the inadequacy of his works and writings. Although they amount to a considerable number of volumes including his unfinished works, there exist hardly any modern editions—not to mention a general edition, which has still not been edited even until today. 2 The study of I.H. Fichte’s thought can mainly be based on the articles in the journal Zeitschrift für Philosophie und spekulative Theologie, which he published together with Weiße from 1837 onwards. 3 Apart from his merits as a biographer and 50publisher of the works of his famous father, Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814), Immanuel Hermann Fichte was granted an occasionally even impassioned esteem within anthroposophist and esoteric circles—similar to his friend Ignaz Paul Vital Troxler (1780–1866), a Swiss theosophical writer. 4 Whether the disparagement within received philosophy or whether the anthroposophist esteem of I.H. Fichte is justifiable, cannot and need not be decided here. 5 The following essay is aimed at a problem-oriented sketch of some of his main thoughts, provided that they can be related to the thinking of Kierkegaard or were related by him respectively. I.H. Fichte himself calls his position “speculative theism.” 6
