Fichte: The Moral Idealist

On Knowledge: Scientific laws CANNOT be deducted from empirical observations. Empirical observations CAN be deducted from scientific laws. For Example: One would NOT be able to deduce that energy can be neither created nor destroyed; it can only change form. However, one CAN deduce that if a dead organism is placed into the earth, it will decompose and that the energy is changing into a form that is being used by living organisms.

On Reality: We have direct experience of our own existence. We make choices and decisions, and we act as moral agents. We are essentially moral wills in the noumenal world. The primary nature of all reality consists in moral character.

On Morality: The moral will, not the knowing mind, is the basic foundation of human existence. The willing self creates our experiences and knowledge for the self in order to be morally fulfilled.

Essential Question: For one to make “moral” choices does there have to be a reality that one is NOT, that opposes itself to one?