The I posits itself, and exists only by virtue of this self-positing.

Das Ich setzt sich selbst, und es ist, vermöge dieses bloßen Setzens durch sich selbst.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Philosophers

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

Founder of German Idealism (1762-1814). Dropping Kant's thing-in-itself, Fichte derived experience from the self-positing I in his Wissenschaftslehre. His Addresses to the German Nation are a touchstone of nationalism.

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Source: Grundlage der gesamten Wissenschaftslehre (1794/95), §1Verified

Johann Gottlieb Fichte's Other Quotes

What sort of philosophy one chooses depends on what sort of person one is.

Act! Act! That is what we are here for.

The living and efficaciously acting moral order is itself God.

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Once Zhuang Zhou dreamed he was a butterfly, fluttering happily about, unaware he was Zhou. Suddenly he awoke, and there he was, unmistakably Zhou. He did not know whether Zhou had dreamed he was a butterfly, or a butterfly was dreaming it was Zhou.

-- Zhuang Zhou