Charles Carroll Everett

“ We have thus examined the criticism which Herbart made of Fichte’s definition of the I, considered as to its material. This criticism may resolve itself into a single statement. The self is subject-object. Both elements, that of subjectivity and that of objectivity, belong to it. In the definition, we attempt to separate these. We seek to place a self that is pure subject over against a self that is pure object. The attempt fails, for each of the terms breaks up into its constituent elements. The subject, because it is the self, is not pure subject, but subject-object. ”

“ We affirm, for instance, that the Right is Right. If we are asked why the Right is Right we might not know what to say. Most men, perhaps, have never even raised the question. Those who have raised it have given many different answers. Yet we all see, not only that the proposition must be true, but that there must be, if we could find it, some absolute ground for its truth. We repeat, then, that the proposition, A is A, implies a necessary ground between the subject and the predicate. ”

“ We try to think of ourselves as an object. The consciousness receives in this way a sub-stratum,—something that would be even without consciousness; and we ask, What is this sub-stratum of consciousness? But in all this we assume unconsciously a subject, perhaps the absolute subject. We are introducing into the problem that which is assumed by the problem. We put ourselves, as it were, outside of ourselves ”

“ It is only when we play with the definition that it becomes obscure.
Further, it may be said that the criticism describes a process which may be repeated indefinitely, not in words only, but in fact. We may rise to the consciousness of our consciousness. Indeed, we actually do this. What we call consciousness is as really self-consciousness as that which we call self-consciousness, for we can be conscious of nothing but ourselves. Self-consciousness is the consciousness of consciousness. ”

“ Our right to affirm reality cannot be derived from anything else. All else must be derived from it. In other words, what we recognize as the ultimate reality cannot be shown to be such by any argument. If we undertake to prove the fact of this ultimate reality, we must appeal to something that we regard as more real than it. Herbert Spencer recognizes this very clearly in his affirmation of the existence of something real outside of us. ”

“ The proposition from which we take our start in the search for the absolute and underlying truth, must be as abstract as possible. Any proposition that is not thus abstract, would have to be reduced to its most abstract or formal statement before it could be used. It is, then, better to start with one that is already as abstract and formal as possible. One such proposition will serve our turn as well as another. We will take the first that offers itself. ”

“ Consciousness is one; they are many; and each can have only its own consciousness. [5]
The relation of consciousness to the elements which enter into it, is then one of absolute supremacy. It is not their product; they are its product. It is, indeed, dependent upon them indirectly. There is no creator without a creation; but the creation is directly dependent upon the creator; the creator only indirectly and ideally dependent upon the creation. So the consciousness is indirectly dependent upon its contents; they are directly dependent upon it. ”

“ Thus, we must have a present self-consciousness to make the consciousness of our past possible. Thus, at every moment of consciousness, we have this unity which exists in and through diversity. This kind of unity is present to all spiritual activity. The statement of it expresses the very law of thought. We can think of no single element by itself; and we can have only one thought at once. Here is a contradiction that would seem to make thought impossible. ”

“ Some would, indeed, make this self-consciousness an act of memory. We are conscious not of ourselves at any given moment; we only recall the experience of the preceding moment. Thus, consciousness would be always flying after that of which it is conscious. ”

“ The affirmation, Cogito, ergo sum, Fichte rightly affirms to involve, not a deduction, of which the major premise is: Whatever thinks, is; but, a direct fact of consciousness. In another connection, he criticises Descartes unjustly, by affirming that thought represents only one form of our being, while there are, besides this, many other forms. We not only think, we do much else. This criticism is false, for Fichte seems not to have recognized the fact that thought, considered in its most universal form, is a constant element of all our other activity. ”

“ On the other hand, an attempt is constantly made to construct the unity of consciousness out of the successive elements of consciousness, even out of the atoms of which the body is composed. We are told of mind-stuff. Each atom of which the brain consists has, it is claimed, two sides—the conscious and the unconscious. ”

“ He accepts the self as given. A man is conscious of himself; that is, of all that his mind contains,—his thoughts and his feelings. Whatever is given more than this, is given indirectly. Fichte starts only with what is directly, and thus absolutely, given. He says thus: I am only for myself. The meaning of this is that the self which is given to anyone in his own consciousness is thus given to himself only. If others accept his existence, or if he accepts the existence of others, this is done indirectly. ”

“ When we seek such a proposition—one, namely, that is purely formal, and that nobody will or can doubt—the one that most readily offers itself is this: A is A, or, what is the same thing, A = A. This is a proposition that it will occur to no one to doubt—and it cannot be reduced to anything more abstract or formal. ”

“ The definition affirms the identity of subject and object; but subject and object are not identical. The one is the absolute opposite of the other, and the attempt to present them as one, involves an absolute contradiction.
This criticism, and the fact that it expresses what to many may seem to be a real difficulty, may serve to show us to how great an extent we ordinarily live outside of ourselves. The definition given by Fichte expresses a fundamental and universal fact of consciousness. We are at each moment conscious of ourselves. ”

“ He is not for others, and others are not for him in the same absolute sense in which each is for himself. Indeed, at this point of the discussion, we have no right to assume that others exist. We have to do only with the one point of absolute, that is, immediate, certainty. It is often said that Fichte never passed beyond this point; that he never recognized the reality that is given indirectly. This prepossession is so common that I refer to it here in order that the reader may not fancy that he has already exhausted the thought of Fichte. ”

“ But we cannot think without assuming our own self-consciousness. Our self-consciousness is the one thing from which we cannot escape by any process of abstraction. We live in the world of thought. Everything appears to us as we think it. The problem, What can we think of that which is wholly outside our thought? is one that is unanswerable. If we cannot answer the question, What is the object of thought apart from thought? ”

“ The proposition itself, A is A, though assumed as established without proof, must have, as we see when we think of it, some basis. There must be some reason why we are sure that A is A. This reason must exist, none the less, although it is assumed by us unconsciously, and even though in any case we might be puzzled to say what this reason is. ”

“ If there is such a thing as a connected experience of related objects, there must be operative in consciousness a unifying principle, which not only presents related objects to itself, but at once renders them objects and unites them in relation to each other by this act of presentation ”

“ We are so used to living in relation to material facts, that we unconsciously apply to spirit the laws of matter. Because among material things there can be no division without fracture and separation, therefore it is believed that division in the spirit must imply fracture and separation. ”

“ As it posits itself, so it is, and as it is, so it posits itself; therefore the I is absolutely and necessarily for itself. The stone has an existence for us; we recognize it, and say, There is a stone. ”

“ The I is thus independent and active. Its very nature is to act. It posits itself, and thereby creates itself.
We have thus reached the Category of Reality. Philosophers have often raised the question as to what is real. ”

“ The students of Fichte, even careful students, have sometimes been tempted to give to it a more active meaning, to put into it more or less distinctly the idea of creation. The word may sometimes indirectly involve the idea of creation. ”

“ In the proposition, A is A, we do not know whether or not A is actually posited. X, however, shows a connection between a hypothetical positing of A as subject, and an absolute positing of the same A as predicate. ”

“ Lest the reader should fancy these formal propositions to be purely an idle play, lest he even fail to see that they are in any true sense propositions, and thus be unable even to think the statements that have been made, it may be well to illustrate the use of the Proposition of Identity, of which the proposition A is A is an example. ”