The Science of Knowing.

" . . . [L]ife is just as truth is: the self-grounded, held and sustained by itself. Truth is, therefore, in and through itself only life’s image, and likewise only an image of life gives truth . . ."^1a

" . . . [Y]ou could not describe pure certainty otherwise than as pure unchangeability; and [you could not describe] unchangeability otherwise than as the persisting oneness of the “what” or of quality."^1b

". . . [W]e view ourselves in the very same way we have described certainty, as persisting unchangeably in the construction’s single same “what”; we are what we say, and we say what we are. . ."^1c

"Simple existence . . . does not have its ground in itself, but instead in an absolute purpose. And this purpose is that absolute knowing should be. Everything is posited and determined through this purpose; and it achieves and exhibits its true destination only in the attainment of this purpose. Value exists only in knowing, indeed in absolute knowing; all else is without value."^1d

"Seeing posited as seeing means that it is thought . . .
"Thus, we genetically derive being there {Dasein}, the true inner essence of existence {Existenz}.
" . . . [T]he absolute insight of reason brings absolute existence {Dasein} (of seeing, in fact) with itself. It does so immediately [in the course of] performing the action, and so the expression of doing so."^1e*

"We indeed are reason, because reason is simply the I, and cannot be anything else than I."^1f

“'Reason itself is immediately and unconditionally the ground of an existence, indeed of its own existence, since it cannot be of any other.'"^1g*

"Absolute reason is absolute (accomplished) thinking {Intelligieren} of oneself. Thinking oneself {Selbstintelligieren} as such, is reason."^1h*

* Italics in the original.

¹ J. G. Fichte (1762-1814). The Science of Knowing: J. G. Fichte’s 1804 Lectures on the Wissenschaftslehre. Translated by Walter E. Wright. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2005.
^a Eleventh Lecture, at 91.
^b Twenty-third Lecture, at 167.
^c Ibid., at 168.
^d Twenty-fifth Lecture, at 182.
^e Twenty-seventh Lecture, at 190-191.
^f Ibid., at 192.
^g Ibid., at 193.
^h Twenty-eighth Lecture, at 198.

MK-BOOKS-FICHTE-20060910.