“The summit of Kantian speculation”. Fichte’s reception of the Third Critique

Abstract

Fichte’s admiration for Kant’s Third Critique is well-documented, but how did it actually infl uence his own philosophy? This question is addressed, fi rst, by examining Fichte’s very early, unpublished “summary” of Kant’s text, and, second, by considering how themes from the latter are present in Fichte’s later published and unpublished writings. These include: the unity of theoretical and practical philosophy and of the sensible and supersensible realms; the purposiveness of nature; the autonomy and heautonomy of the I; the roles of abstraction, refl ection, and imagination in philosophizing; and harmony of the drives as a key ingredient in moral deliberation.