A History of Philosophy in EpitomeSchwegler, Albert
Philosophy
A History of Philosophy in Epitome
Schwegler, Albert
Philosophy -- History
Fichte’s _theory of religion_ is developed in the above mentioned
treatise: “_On the ground of our faith in a divine government of the
world_,” and in the writings which he subsequently put forth in its
defence. The moral government of the world, says Fichte, we assume to be
the divine. This divine government becomes living and actual in us
through right-doing: it is presupposed in every one of our actions which
are only performed in the presupposition that the moral end is
attainable in the world of sense. The faith in such an order of the
world comprises the whole of faith, for this living and active moral
order is God; we need no other God, and can comprehend no other. There
is no ground in the reason to go out of this moral order of the world,
and by concluding from design to a designer, affirm a separate being as
its cause. Is, then, this order an accidental one? It is the absolute
First of all objective knowledge. But now if you should be allowed to
draw the conclusion that there is a God as a separate being, what have
you gained by this? This being should be distinct from you and the
world, it should work in the latter according to conceptions; it should,
therefore, be capable of conceptions, and possess personality and
consciousness. But what do you call personality and consciousness?
Certainly that which you have found in yourself, which you have learned
to know in yourself, and which you have characterized with such a name.
But that you cannot conceive of this without limitation and finiteness,
you might see by the slightest attention to the construction of this
conception. By attaching, therefore, such a predicate to this being, you
bring it down to a finite, and make it a being like yourself; you have
not conceived God as you intended to do, but have only multiplied
yourself in thought. The conception of God, as a separate substance, is
impossible and contradictory. God has essential existence only as such a
moral order of the world. Every belief in a divine being, which contains
any thing more than the conception of the moral order of the world, is
an abomination to me, and in the highest degree unworthy of a rational
being.—Religion and morality are, on this standpoint, as on that of
Kant, naturally one; both are an apprehending of the supersensible, the
former through action and the latter through faith. This “Religion of
joyous right-doing,” Fichte farther carried out in the writings which he
put forth to rebut the charge of atheism. He affirms that nothing but
the principles of the new philosophy could restore the degenerate
religious sense among men, and bring to light the inner essence of the
Christian doctrine. Especially he seeks to show this in his “Appeal” to
the public. In this he says: to furnish an answer to the questions: what
is good? what is true? is the aim of my philosophical system. We must
start with the affirmation that there is something absolutely true and
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