Modern Philosophy: Locke and Fichte

Regulations:

Grades Review assignments are graded A through F.

Style Review assignments must be typed. Exact quotes earn no points. Answers based on text books or web site materials earn no points. Answers must be based on class lectures, discussions, and the student's own reading of the assigned texts, and must be composed by the student.

Late submission Review Assignments will be penalized one grade point (e.g. from B- to C+) if they are submitted at the next class after the due date. After the second due date, they will not qualify for a passing mark, although they must be submitted to pass the course.

Text references must be provided for all discussions based on a philosopher's texts. A penalty will be imposed if this is not done.

In parentheses following each point you make, give an exact reference to the place where the philosopher makes the point you are attributing to him. Give the name of the work, the paragraph numbers for Locke, the Book number and page numbers for Fichte. Indicate exactly where this particular point is made in Locke's or Fichte's text. One reference to a large section of text is not acceptable.

On a separate sheet at the end of the assignment give the title Works Cited. Then list the works cited including the following information: the author's full name, the full title of the work in italics or underlined, for Fichte followed by the abbreviation trans. and the name of the translator, in parentheses the place of publication followed by a colon, the publishing house followed by a comma, and the date of publication.

Audience: Write your answers for a reader whose intelligence and education level are the same as your own but who has not taken this course. This means that you must explain everything explicitly. You cannot depend on the reader to fill in what you do not actually say.

Assignment

Write the assignment as a continuous, well-organized essay

according to the following Outline

I. INTRODUCTION

An introduction describes a philosophical topic, problem, or question that will be the focus of the essay. If the essay will be a complicated treatment of the topic, the introduction should also tell the reader what general issues will be addressed in each section.

For the introduction to this essay, state briefly how modern philosophy changes the way the fundamental structure of knowledge is defined, and how Locke ‘s empirical method and its presuppositions exemplify this new approach. Compose this part of the introduction by using your answer to #1A in the Discussion Assignment.

Tell your reader that in this essay you will examine the way Fichte's critique of knowledge in The Vocation of Man exposes weaknesses in Locke's reliance on sense experience. State that the discussion begins by explaining how Locke's empirical method affects the way Locke understands what a person is and what freedom is, and that the study of Fichte will show how his critique radically changes the way we understand self-consciousness and freedom. Compose this part of the introduction by using your answer to #2 in the Discussion Assignment.

II. Locke

A. Personal Identity
B. Freedom

III. Fichte: I am a natural self necessarily determined by natural forces

A. Proof that a natural event depends on an original natural force
B. Proof that I am part of the natural order

C. Critical Analysis of the Proof

1. Fichte's reaction to the conclusion

2. Critical Analysis of

a. what knowledge has proved
b. what Fichte's desire demands
c. the limits of what knowledge has proved
d. the either-or with which Fichte is confronted

3. What Fichte proposes to do about the outcome of the critical analysis

IV. Fichte: Examination of Knowledge

A. Knowledge of things shifts into knowledge of my own condition

B. Inference to a cause of my condition shifts into
the causal principle reduced to a way of thinking

C. The intuition of spatial separation shifts into

1. the distinction between consciousness and what it is conscious of
2. the condition that makes consciousness possible

D. Knowledge is only knowledge

1. what this means
2. how this result liberates Fichte from being part of the natural order

E. How this critique

1. exposes the weakness of Locke's reliance on sense experience
2. challenges the way Locke understands self-consciousness

V. Fichte: Knowledge and Faith

A. Faith

1. why Fichte rejects the knowledge-is-only knowledge conclusion
2. how Fichte makes the move to faith
3. how faith restores knowledge
3. how faith redefines what the natural world is
3. how all this redefines his vocation

B. Conscience

1. how conscience makes me free
2. why the will must be connected to a supersensible world
3. why conscience must be governed by an infinite will

C. Conclusion

1. how conscience transforms Locke's definition of personal identity
2. how conscience transforms Locke's position on freedom