FICHTE, IMMANUEL HERMANN, son of Johann Gottlieb, and professor of philosophy in the university of Tubingen, was b. in 1797, and early devoted himself to philo sophical studies, being attracted by the later views of his father, which he considers were essentially theistic. He also attended the lectures of Hegel. but felt averse to his pantheistic tendencies, and leaned more to Schleiermacher and Schelling. Occupied at first as a teacher, F. was appointed professor of philosophy in Bonn in 1836, and from 1842 to 1863 held a chair in the university of Tithingen. His chief works are Beitrage our Characteristik der neuern Philosophic (1841); Grandziige zum Systeme der Philosophic (1839-47); System der Ethik (1850); Anthropologic (1856); Psychologie (1864); Vermischte Schriften (1839); etc. He suggested meetings of philosophers similar to those held by physicists; and at the one held at Gotha, 1847, he delivered an address On the Philoso phy of the Future (Stuttg. 1847). The great aim of his speculations has been to find a philosophic basis for the personality of God, and for his theory on this subject he has proposed the term concrete theism, to distinguish it alike from the abstract theism which makes God almost an unreality—a barren aggregate of lifeless attributes; and on the other hand, from the all-absorbing pantheism of Hegel, which swallows up the human and the divine in its own inapprehensible totality. Some time ago, F. published an
important work, Zur Seelcnfrage, erne Philosophische Confession, which has been trans lated into English by J. I). Morel], under the title of Contributions to Mental Philosophy (1860), for an account of which see art. CONSCIOUSNESS. During the movements of 1848, he issued several political tracts. The principle of F.'s politics is not unlike Dr. Arnold's maxim. He holds that there is only one kind of real conservatism, that of constant well-planned reform; and that all revolution consists either in attempts to precipitate prematurely the future, or to go back to ideas that are effete, the last being only the chrysalis form of the first. The state, "according to the idea of benevolence." belongs to the future. The regeneration of Christianity would consist in its becoming the vital and organizing power in the state, instead of being occupied solely, as heretofore, with the salvation of individuals. To this recent school of philosophy belong Weisse, Cha lybcens, Wirth, and others.