FICHTE, IMMANUEL HERMANN (originally HART MANN) VON (1796-1879), German philosopher, son of J. G. Fichte, was born at Jena on July 18, 1796. Having held educa tional posts at Saarbriicken and Dusseldorf, in 1836 he became professor of philosophy at Bonn and in 1842 at Tubingen. He died at Stuttgart on Aug. 8, 1879. His most important writings are: System der Ethik (1850-53), Anthropologie (1856), Psychologie Die theistiscjie Iheltansicht (1873). Fichte's general views on philosophy are marked by an eclecticism, a predomi nantly historical treatment of problems and a conciliatory tone. He attempts to reconcile monism (Hegel) and individualism (Herbart) by means of theism (Leibnitz). He attacks Hegelianism for its pantheism, its lowering of human personality and imperfect recognition of the demands of the moral consciousness. God, he says, is not an absolute but an Infinite Person, whose nature it is to realize Himself in finite persons; these persons are objects of God's love, and He arranges the world for their good. Fichte, in short, advocates an ethical theism; in his conception of finite personality he recurs to something like the monadism of Leibnitz; and his insistence on moral experience is connected with his insistence on personality. Fichte evaluates previous systems by the adequateness with which they interpret moral experience. Thus he depreciates Hegel, praises Krause (panentheism) and Schleiermacher, and speaks respectfully of English philosophy. In his Der neuere Spiritualismus (1878), he employs arguments of a somewhat occult or theosophical cast, not unlike those of F. W. H. Myers. He edited the works and correspondence of his father.
See R. Eucken, "Zur Erinnerung I. H. F.," in Zeitschri f t fur Philosophie, ex. (1897) ; C. C. Scherer, Die Gotteslehre von I. H. F. (1902). Some of his works were translated by J. D. Morell under the title of Contributions to Mental Philosophy (186o).