Fichte on Self Consciousness

Dear Professor, excellent lecture. I eagerly wait for you lectures.

Fichte on Self Consciousness Fichte is a key figure of The German Enlightenment that the average analytic philosopher doesn't encounter much at all 0:01 Son of a ribbon maker Name: Johan Gottlieb Fichte, a Philosopher Born 1762, 54 Years of Life, Died 1814 in Rammenau, Germany. 0:27 Fichte was a key figure of The German Enlightenment, German Idealism Movement. 0:53 He's not only a key figure, but he has philosophical insights Professor Bonevac thinks have been underestimated. 1:02 The average analytic philosopher doesn't encounter Fichte. If they do at all, it's only in a quick idea or 2 with a reference. Fichte is onto something important 1:15 Fichte is on to something important, Professor Bonevac thinks. 1:33 Fichte is trying to reconstruct Ethics, on something like a Kantian Foundation, which goes back to St. Augustine, and has to do with the nature of Consciousness itself. Fichte Background and Upbringing 2:02 Fichte was the son of a ribbon maker. 2:08 Fichte recited an entire sermon from memory. This impressed a wealthy baron friend of Fichte, who then funded Fichte's Education. 2:52 Kant was impressed by Fichte. Kant encouraged Fichte. 3:05 Kant was a major inspiration to Fichte. 3:18 What Fichte is trying to do is not elaborate Kant, but go back to something Absolutely Fundamental about the mind. Wissenschaftslehre The Science Theory or The Theory of Science. 3:30 The Science Theory 3:49 After 5 Years at Yenna, Fichte was FIRED under suspicions of being a radical and an atheist. 4:01 Fichte continued publishing books, about 1 each year. One in particular was The Vocation of Man "The Kind of Philosophy you choose depends on the kind of person you are." 4:18 "The Kind of Philosophy you choose depends on the kind of person you are." 4:29 There is a strong link between Consciousness, Mind, Personality, and Philosophical Ideas The "I" The idea of "Self-Positing" 4:51 Fichte begins with The I. Everything depends on The Mind for an Idealist. 5:07 For an Idealist like Fichte, you have to begin with The Mind. 5:22 The "I" is essentially Self-Positing. It's Self-Aware. It Reflects Upon Itself. 5:38 "What makes the mind unique is not simply that it can record things about the outside world...what is unique about the mind is it's ability to reflect upon itself. That is, to be aware of itself." 6:01 The I freely posits itself. The I posits itself, The I is aware of itself, The I reflects upon itself. The I is conscious of itself. 6:16 Not only is the "I" aware of itself, it is aware of itself as self-positing. 6:54 Aware of it's own Awareness, Reflecting on Reflecting. 7:05 We are able to reflect on our own reflecting. Analogies to The Self-Positing "I" 7:12 Rene Descartes' "I think therefore I am." The Basic nature of The I. 7:23 "I think, therefore I must exist." 7:32 "I have to exist in order to think that I exist." I think, I can be aware 7:39 What is essential to the self is to be able to say "I think." 7:48 "I think I think I think I think." 7:54 "I can be aware of myself." 7:56 "I can be aware of my own thinking." 7:58 "I can be aware of my own awareness of my thinking." 8:04 "I can generate an infinite series." Reflection upon Reflection 8:07 Reflection on our own Reflection. 8:17 The "I think" collapses an Infinite Series. 8:25 Finite Bounds and Cognitive Limitations by the inevitability of death. 8:43 "I think I think I think I think." implict in Descrate. Augustine 8:56 "Augustine is a bit more explicit when is trying to refute academic skepticism about that ability to reflect on our own reflection." The Analogy of Hinduism to The I 9:04 Hinduism "The Self is Self-Illumining" A Luminosity. The Simplicity of God and The Generation of The Trinity 9:51 Augustine and Aquinas: 9:57 God is compared to a Mind, Thinking of Himself. Aware of His Own Thinking of Himself. 10:04 "And so, the Self-Thinking generates The 2nd Person of The Trinity, The Awareness of The Awareness of Something, like what generates The 3rd Person of The Trinity." 10:14 Generates here means a Metaphysical Dependence going on in The Nature of Consciousness itself, not a process in time of generating something. Self-Consciousness 10:24 The I Posits Itself as Self-Positing. Aware, Conscious, Reflects. 10:42 Consciousness Presupposes Self-Consciousness. 10:47 A Mind is the kind of thing that is inherently, necessarily Self-Conscious. 10:57 What does that tell us about The Nature of ourselves? The Nature of beings with minds. ______ 11:08 Video by cottonbro studios, from Pexels

Professor Bonevac, thank you for another great video!!! Fichte’s ideas are interesting, but I doubt that mind is fully self-conscious. Sometimes people can’t understand why they have certain thoughts. Also people can desire something, but aren’t able to understand their actual motivations.

thanks Daniel you the man man

Parts of this sounded like fractal equations, which are really self repeating algorithms, not equations. I visited this post because I wanted to get confirmation on a saying I attribute to Fichte. My memory however is not clear. I do remember reading this saying from an old edition of "the Great Books of the Western World". When I came across this saying it was because I was reading about "subjectivism". I believe I was reading Fichte but I'm not sure. In any case the saying was this: "Every assertion makes an assumption."

Fichte rules!

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. John 1:9-11

At 4:28, "The kind of philosophy you choose is the kind of person you are." The notion of personality type is currently met with skepticism due to its association with Jung and enneagrams. Did Fichte have a system for distinguishing personality types?

Professor Bonevac, I also wanted to ask you a question about analytic:synthetic distinction, which you explained in one of your videos: are geometry theorems analytic or synthetic? Typically abstract representations of geometric figures are used to prove these theorems. But some axioms in geometry can’t be proved and were found empirically.

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