Attempt at a Critique of all Revelation

by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Garrett Green (Introduction)

An Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation was the first published work by Johann Gottlieb Fichte. It was briefly mistaken by the public to be a fourth Critique by Immanuel Kant, and thereby gained Fichte much philosophical fame.

Genres: Philosophy, Theory

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1792

About the author

Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant. Fichte is often perceived as a figure whose philosophy forms a bridge between the ideas of Kant and the German Idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Recently, philosophers and scholars have begun to appreciate Fichte as an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights into the nature of self-consciousness or self-awareness. Like Descartes and Kant before him, the problem of subjectivity and consciousness motivated much of his philosophical rumination. Fichte also wrote political philosophy, and is thought of by some as the father of German nationalism.
His son, Immanuel Hermann Fichte, was also a renowned philosopher.

Reviews

[Griffin Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent exposition on Kantian morality and some of its religious implications. In fact, this work was actually first published anonymously and people thought the author was Kant himself; I will look forward to comparing this to Kant's "Religion Within the Bounds of Reason Alone."

This is the third book I have read of Fichte, and I am starting to become a big fan. I would advise reading (or at least being familiar with) Kant's first two critiques before taking on this book.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading, I'm still convinced that Fichte is a closet atheist who masquerades his thought with theist language, just like Spinoza. His main argument here is that the only aspect that gives validity to any revealed religion is if it is consistent with moral laws, which begs the question of why do we need the revelation in the first place. Kierkegaard would point out that sometimes the revelation is inconsistent with moral laws (e.g. Abraham and sacrifice of Isaac), which points to the Jobean observation that God is a being who overwhelms and conquers, not a being who is constrained by human concepts, which Fichte, if given the opportunity, would argue that such a God is false. To Fichte it seems, moral laws are absolute and even God is subject to it. All in all, Fichte makes the argument which is typical among many of my freethinker friends living in religious countries, that the main function of religion is to teach people to be good, although he does emphasize that Christianity is superior to other religions because of it being a rational religion.

You gotta tip your hat to this guy, one of the supremely talented philosophers but perhaps lacks discipline and the right circumstances to fulfill his potential. He could recite and understand entire sermons when he was 9, just think about that. The moment he left Jena because of controversy, many including Goethe thought that Fichte will not find any better intellectual environment anywhere and hence would not fully achieve his potential.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fichte is not the easiest to follow, but what can be expected from someone who followed in Kant's footsteps? As pointed out in the translator's introduction, many of Fichte's ideas were later taken up and developed by others (e.g. thesis/anti-thesis/synthesis). For this alone, reading his work could help deal with the later formulations.