TRANSCENDENTAL IDEALISM OF FICHTE
Fichte tried to dissolve the antithesis between the ego and thing-in -itself by identifying all reality with ego. For every judgment implied the affirmation of the self or ego. This ego means not merely subjective human consciousness which Fichte called the Absolute. For, if the affirmation is taken in itself abstracting from the special object of the judgment, it implies no limit this absolute ego, which is the beginning of all consciousness, simply points itself: am I. This is called thesis because it consists in a simple placing of self. This self posting or thesis of ego must necessarily engender an anti thesis. This anti thesis means the non ego without which the self posting of the ego cannot be understood. A third and final step necessarily follows which is called synthesis .this consists in the identification of the ego and non ego subject and object in the primeval consciousness of the absolute ego. Human consciousness is but a participation of this absolute subjectivity attained in the course of the dynamic evaluation of ego.
The initial step in this transformation was taken by Fichte , author of the Wissenschaftslehre (Science of Knowledge) Noticing that the Kantian account of experience creates a vital tension between the roles of pure intelligence and pure object as noumenal realities, Fichte argued that the balance between the two cannot be maintained. We are, instead, driven to choose one of two alternative views: to emphasize the knower and ignore the known as a thing in itself, or to ignore the knower in order to focus on the reality of the known. Fichte chose the former, idealistic course, believing it alone capable of securing the freedom required for an adequate account of morality.
According to Fichte, then, all philosophy and all reality begins with the transcendental ego, the elusive but purely active noumenal self, identifiable only in an indefinitely repeated reflection upon primary experience ("think on one who thinks on one who . . ."). This conscious being expand itself infinitely to comprehend everything, limited in its scope only by the logical categories and the regulative principles they entail. Hence, for Fichte, objects exist only as the objects of consciousness, believed by some individual ego in its restlessly active pursuit of knowledge.
Since an individual ego of this sort just is the active self as moral agent, Fichte supposed that morality follows directly from its nature. Once again, the ego expands infinitely to do everything, yet is consistently limited by its own legislation of the moral law. Since all egos are subject to precisely the same conditions, universal agreement to their moral precepts is assured. At the social level, this implies individual membership in a society of like-minded selves, a primitively socialist spirit akin to that exhibited in the French Revolution, of which Fichte was a vocal supporter. By eliminating all references to material objects as even potential things in themselves, Fichte left room for nothing but minds in the noumenal realm. Thus, although he regarded himself as a loyal follower of Kant, Fichte significantly modified the master's thought by regarding it as inescapably committed to transcendental idealism.
Sources:
Chackalackal, class note
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