Der Andere und die real stattfindende Diskussion als Grundlagen des Ichs bei Fichte [The other and the actually occurring discussion as bases of the self in the works of Fichte]

My aim in this text is to shed some light on the relation between Fichte’s early political writings and the Foundations of Natural Right regarding the concept of intersubjectivity. In order to do so, I focus on Fichte’s Reclamation of the Freedom of Thought from the Princes of Europe, Who Have Oppressed It Until Now. In my analysis, I underline the importance of Fichte’s early political writings for the reconstruction of the development of his philosophical system, a fact that has been neglected by many scholars. I will focus on the concept of ‘self’ and on how its existence can be defined only through a reference to its relation to the others. In fact, in the Reclamation of the Freedom of Thought, thinking is explained as a process, which is made possible only by the plurality of thinking subjects who express themselves and, in this way, the actually occurring discussion becomes a basic element for the possibility of thinking at all and, conversely, the existence of a ‘self’. From this, I underline why Enlightenment has to be considered a collective rather than an individual struggle