Fichte’s Theory of Manifestation: Philosophy and Religion from 1804-1806

The project offers an original solution to the problem of the possibility of religious language as posed by Immanuel Kant. Using a method he called “transcendental,” Kant grounded the possibilities of knowledge in objects, rejecting Christian theology. Thinking religion today therefore means contending with the Kantian frame, either upholding its Enlightenment principles and rejecting the possibility of theology, or trying to overcome it, restoring theology to what it was before. Yet neither option is viable. My research therefore posits a third option, as yet unexplored in the literature. It does so by positing that one of Kant’s immediate successors, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, put forth a philosophical theory of manifestation that is neither a retreat to pre-Kantian theology, nor an Enlightenment dismissal of theology. Rather, it seeks to establish a philosophy of religion using Kant’s transcendental method, one that is not only its necessary product, but the expansion of its frontiers.

Faculty Supervisor:

Garth Green

Student:

Partner:

Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

McGill University

Program: