Fichte on Free Will and Predestination

Kienhow Goh (National University of Singapore)

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English

Routledge
26 June 2025

Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900; Religion: general; Christianity

Series: Routledge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Philosophy

The book explains Fichte’s position on free will and predestination, including its rationale and significance. It argues that Fichte affirms both free will and predestination and explains how he purports to do so without contradiction.

The book presents Fichte’s position as a form of compatibilism that has not yet been explored in the literature. Due to early rationalist convictions, Fichte is as much concerned with reconciling freedom with a logical and a theological determinism as he is with a causal determinism. He sees in Kant’s novel concept of a pure practical reason a new form of rationalism, one consisting of a system of moral rather than natural necessitating grounds. At the same time, he adopts a more radically libertarian stance on free will than Kant. Every member in a sequence of free actions is a “first and absolute member” and could be other than it is given the same antecedent natural events and natural laws. The interest of Fichte as a theorist of freedom lies in how he brings together freedom and predetermination in a way that challenges our assumption about their mutual exclusivity. The book provides an overview of Fichte’s philosophical system – the so-called “Doctrine of Science” – from 1793 to 1800 with the aim of contextualizing his theory of free agency and destiny. In doing so, it sheds light on how consideration of these issues in turn shapes the system.

Fichte on Free Will and Predestination will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working on Fichte’s philosophy, the history of modern philosophy, German Idealism, and the history of the philosophical issue of free will.

By: Kienhow Goh (National University of Singapore)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
Weight: 390g
ISBN: 9781032455211
ISBN 10: 1032455217
Series: Routledge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Philosophy
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 26 June 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Kienhow Goh is a visiting fellow at the National University of Singapore. His primary research interest is in German idealism, particularly questions related to free will and actions in Fichte’s early philosophy. He is the author of several journal articles, book chapters, and book reviews on classical German philosophy.

Reviews for Fichte on Free Will and Predestination

“A genuinely fresh and provocative interpretation of Fichte as defending an idiosyncratic variety of compatibilism regarding the relationship between freedom and predestination. Highly recommended.” Daniel Breazeale, University of Kentucky, USA