Robert Adamson

“ Under what conditions can the Ego be conscious of itself? Only in so far as it is practical, in so far as it is a striving force, only in so far as it is will. “The practical Ego is the Ego of original self-consciousness; a rational being immediately perceives itself only in willing; and were it not practical, would perceive neither itself nor the world—would not be an intelligence at all. Will is in a special sense the essence of reason.” ”

“ Now in consciousness there is found the root of all the multiplicity of experience; for the very essence of consciousness is reflection, characterisation of the one reality by separate, individual marks. Just as light, in itself colourless, is, in relation to the eye, broken up on the surfaces of things into many various hues; so the unchangeable life is by reflection and in relation to consciousness broken up into infinitely varied forms. Consciousness, which contains in itself the element of opposition, can never transcend itself. ”

“ Is there any such happiness as for a man's mind to be raised above the confusion of things, where he may have the prospect of the order of nature and error of man? But is this a view of delight only and not of discovery? of contentment and not of benefit? Shall he not as well discern the riches of nature's warehouse as the beauty of her shop? ”

“ Moral regeneration of a nation, the education of the individual to the great general interests, is only possible when there is a free and living national spirit, capable of uniting the several members in the service of a common end. The German spirit is free and living, for the German people is pure and unmixed, and its history is the development of a single stock. The wonderful plasticity of the German language, which renders it capable of expressing in vivid and pictorial fashion the profoundest thought, is in itself a sufficient proof that the German people has the stamp of originality. ”

“ The pure activity, as self-related, is infinite; the objective activity is finite and limitative. If the Ego is to unite both, it must be an infinite activity which is at the same time, though not in the same sense, finite; it must be an infinite striving. Striving implies opposition, for without obstacle, without impediment, there is only boundless activity. How shall the infinite activity of the Ego be thought as infinite striving? The Ego is, but it is only for itself. Reflection is thus the very law of existence for a conscious Ego. The Ego is only the Ego, in so far as it reflects. ”

“ Fichte as well as Kant is aware that philosophy has only to think experience, that it in no way adds to experience, and that it must contain nothing beyond experience. “I declare,” he writes in one of the most popular of his expositions, “the very innermost spirit and soul of my philosophy to be, that man has nothing beyond experience, and that he obtains all that he has, from experience, from life only. All his thinking, whether vague or scientific, whether popular or transcendental, proceeds from experience and concerns nothing but experience.” ”

“ Self-consciousness, which was, even with Kant, the nodus or kernel whence the categories sprang, was nothing but a logical centre,—the reality was concealed. There was thus a dualism, to overcome which is the first step in the Hegelian system. The principle, if there is to be one, must be universally applicable, all-comprehensive. Self-consciousness is precisely the principle wanted; it is a unity, an identity, containing in itself a multiplicity. The universal in absolute self-consciousness is just pure thinking, which in systematic evolution is the categories ”

“ All the sciences are but the handmaids of theology; reason can discover some of the moral truths which form the groundwork of the Christian system, but others it can only receive and apprehend through divine illumination. In order to obtain this illumination the soul must employ the proper means, which are prayer, the exercise of the virtues, whereby it is rendered fit to accept the divine light, and meditation which may rise even to ecstatic union with God. The supreme end of life is such union, union in contemplation or intellect and in intense absorbing love ”

“ It is impossible to enter here on the steps by which the theoretical ego is shown to develop into the complete system of cognitive categories, or to trace the deduction of the processes (productive imagination, intuition, sensation, understanding, judgment, reason) by which the quite indefinite non-ego comes to assume the appearance of definite objects in the forms of time and space. All this evolution is the necessary consequence of the determination of the ego by the non-ego. But it is clear that the non-ego cannot really determine the ego. There is no reality beyond the ego itself. ”

“ In phenomena we distinguish matter, which is given by sense, and form, which is the law of the order of sensations. Such form is twofold—the order of space and time. Sensations formed by space and time compose the world of appearance, and this when treated by the understanding, according to logical rules, is experience. But the logical use of the understanding is not its only use. Much more important is the real use, by which are produced the pure notions whereby we think things as they are. These pure notions are the laws of the operation of the intellect; they are leges intellectus. ”

“ If we start in our philosophic inquiry with the supposition of an individual mind and a system of things, no human ingenuity can ever effect a reconciliation between the two isolated members of our hypothesis. The notion of individuality, one of the hardest to solve, has been the stumbling-block in the way of all the eighteenth century philosophy, and it is the pre-eminent merit of the critical system to have for the first time subjected the notion to detailed and rigorous treatment. ”

“ All ages,—all the wise and good who have ever breathed the air of this world of ours,—all their thoughts and aspirations towards a higher good,—mingle with these voices and encompass you about and raise suppliant hands towards you;—Providence itself, if we may venture so to speak, and the Divine plan in the creation of a human race—which indeed exists only that it may be understood of men, and by men be wrought into reality—plead with you to save their honour and their existence. ”

“ Religion,—the fourth stage of reflection,—which thus consists in regarding and recognising all earthly life as the necessary development of the one, original, perfectly good and blessed life, may indeed be realised in conduct, although the individual has not the clear consciousness of the thought which animates and directs his efforts. But in this consciousness, the final standpoint of science or philosophy, all others are contained and involved. “Religion without science is a mere faith, though an immovable faith; science supersedes all faith and converts it into insight.” ”

“ If the ego be a striving power, then of necessity a limit must be set by which its striving is manifest. But how can the infinitely active ego posit a limit to its own activity? Here we come to the crux of Fichte’s system, which is only partly cleared up in the Rechtslehre and Sittenlehre. If the ego be pure activity, free activity, it can only become aware of itself by positing some limit. We cannot possibly have any cognition of how such an act is possible. But as it is a free act, the ego cannot be determined to it by anything beyond itself ”

“ All life is its life, and the manifestation of this life is the infinite development of humanity. The life does not exist as a completed fact,—hence the point of view is in no way to be identified with Pantheism or with Spinozism,—but eternally is to be. The individual, finite Ego, in acceptance of his position as a member in this supersensible order, realises his infinite vocation, tends more and more to lose his apparent individuality, and approaches ever more nearly to the idea of infinitude which is the characteristic mark of self-consciousness. ”

“ Conscious experience, that of which the individual subject becomes aware as making up his existence, is regarded as material upon which the processes of observation, classification, analysis, employed to good purpose in physical inquiries, are to be directed. At first sight, indeed, such a method appears not merely natural, but the only possible way in which a philosophical theory, granting such to be feasible, can be constructed. For is not a philosophical theory a kind of knowledge? ”

“ It has been, historically, the misfortune of the ‘Wissenschaftslehre,’ that only its earlier form has played a part in influencing subsequent thought, for the defects of that form are manifest on the surface. Earnestly as Fichte strives to enforce the doctrine that self-consciousness, which is for thought the ultimate ground of reality, is not to be regarded as individual, but as that in and through which individuals are, and are connected with one another, he never succeeds in divesting his system of a certain air of subjective idealism. ”

“ Is truth ever barren? Shall he not be able thereby to produce worthy effects, and to endow the life of man with infinite commodities?" [48] Philosophy is altogether practical; it is of little matter to the fortunes of humanity what abstract notions one may entertain concerning the nature and the principles of things. [49] This truth, however, has never yet been recognised; [50] it has not yet been seen that the true aim of all science is "to endow the condition and life of man with new powers or works," [51] or "to extend more widely the limits of the power and greatness of man." ”

“ Think that with my voice there are mingled the voices of your ancestors from the far-off ages of grey antiquity, of those who stemmed with their own bodies the tide of Roman domination over the world, who vindicated with their own blood the independence of those mountains, plains, and streams which under you have been suffered to fall a prey to the stranger. They call to you,—‘Take ye our place’—hand down our memory to future ages, honourable and spotless as it has come down to you, as you have gloried in it and in your descent from us. ”