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IN 1794-95 J. G. FICHTE delivered a series of public lectures on "Morality for Scholars" at the University of Jena.1 In these lectures, Fichte provided an exoteric presentation of his transcendental philosophy and a compelling account of morality. The lectures helped to consolidate Fichte's reputation as the leading representative of the new "Critical Philosophy" (that is, Kantian philosophy). They also, due to some imprudent comments about the superfluity of the state in a morally perfect society,2 confirmed his reputation as a "Jacobin" and revolutionary firebrand. These comments were seized upon by Fichte's enemies who spread the rumor that he had predicted that "in ten or twenty years there will be no more kings or princes."3 To scotch this rumor, he resolved to publish the transcripts of the first four lectures, thereby making them available for public scrutiny. As it turned out, he decided (perhaps at the prompting of Goethe) to publish the first five lectures under the title Some Lectures concerning the Scholar's Vocation Einige Vorlesungen über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten) (hereafter, the Lectures).
The first four lectures develop an account of human nature and the nature of the scholar (or "academic" - Gelehrter)4 which maintains that the scholar should supervise the moral progress of the human race.6 The fifth lecture constitutes a critical "examination" (Prüfung) of Rousseau's claim that the arts and sciences, and hence culture, have contributed to the corruption of morals. The fifth lecture is interesting because it is an attempt by one of the most philosophically sophisticated advocates of the Enlightenment to answer one of its most trenchant critics. However, the primary interest of the lecture lies in the light that it sheds on Fichte's relationship to Rousseau.6
Fichte knew Rousseau's work well and considered it to have deep affinities with the new Critical Philosophy (indeed, he suggests that Rousseau's philosophy is a precursor to that philosophy7). Moreover, many of the distinctive features of Fichte's transcendental philosophy - his emphasis on "conscience,"8 his conception of morality as a "struggle," his account of the "general will"9 - bear the mark of Rousseau's influence. However, despite this influence, Fichte's transcendental philosophy advances a conception of humanity's potential for moral progress and of the role of culture that seems to be flatly at...