Was Fichte's philosophy misunderstood?
Indeed, some mistook my emphasis on the I for mere egoism or subjectivism. They failed to grasp that this I is not a finite, isolated individual, but the absolute, transcendental ground of all consciousness. The not-I is posited by this absolute I not out of caprice, but as a necessary condition for its own self-realization and moral development. The aim is not self-absorption, but the active constitution of a rational world.
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