Abstract

This chapter argues that the challenge of skepticism and the ensuing charge of nihilism are the main problems that Fichte tries to solve in his system of Wissenschaftslehre, and that his solution is offered via his recourse to a distinction between two standpoints: the standpoint of philosophy and the standpoint of ordinary life. In particular, I argue that Fichte regards it a virtue of his system to have resolved the seeming incompatibility of freedom and determinism by invoking that distinction. As a consequence, philosophy for Fichte turns out to be a radical discipline by which a unity of speculation and life—that of thought and action, together with the unity of the two standpoints—is prominently exemplified.