Necessity and Freedom in J. G. Fichte's Philosophy of History

• Grant number: 25/01231-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Isabel Coelho Fragelli
• Grantee: Pedro Henrique Almeida Cabrera
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project has, as its central theme, the contradiction between history as a twofold discipline that contains an a priori and an a posteriori part, apparent in Fichte's Grundzüge des gegenwärtigen Zeitalters. The first part of this science is a teleological one, for it establishes a goal for the human species (its Plan of the World) and determines through the concept of earthly life the course of humanity's existence, which is transcendentally grounded in the concepts of Being (Sein) and Knowledge (Wissen). The same grounding also presents the transcendental conditions of empirical data and historical action, creating space for the a posteriori part of history. The problem is lodged precisely in this connection, for the empirical individuals are, according to the second part of history, the real historical agents, and the actions of those agents are free (arbitrary and unpredictable). Therefore, it seems impossible to grant the necessity of the Plan of the World and simultaneously insist on the unpredictable and arbitrary aspects of action. We propose as a solving hypothesis the possibility of finding a concept of freedom in the necessary grounding of the Plan of the World, which would redefine the terms and undermine the contradiction. This concept, as we believe, can be found in the Wissenschaftslehre 1804/II, specifically tied to the passage between Being and Knowledge: it is the concept of Soll. (AU)