FICHTE ON THE VOCATION OF THE SCHOLAR AND THE (MIS)USE OF HISTORY

摘要

GIVEN ITS STATUS AS A FOUNDATIONAL TEXT in nationalist political thought, the main emphasis in discussions of Fichte's Addresses to the German Nation (Reden an die deutsche Nation) has not surprisingly tended to be on the issue of the kind of nationalism that is to be found in this work, particularly the question as to whether it contains an ethnic nationalism, based on descent, or a cultural nationalism, which defines nationality in terms of linguistic and cultural differences, or a mixture of both these forms of nationalism.1 While the Addresses to the German Nation clearly do constitute an attempt on Fichte's part to shape a German national identity, in what follows I focus on the question of the relation of this attempt to shape a German national identity to Fichte's ideas concerning the vocation (Bestimmung) of the scholar (der Gelehrte) in society.