The Concept of State in Fichte’s Foundations of Natural Right
Abstract
This article analyses the concept of rational State from three perspectives, which explicitly
or implicitly are present in Fichte’s Foundations of Natural Right. In order to show the centrality of
the concept of State, first we examine the perspective of its superfluity and limits (point 2). Second, we
examine the point of view of coercion, which also provides a negative concept of State (point 3). In the
third place, we examine the perspective which, although it does not characterize the State negatively,
also fails to provide a positive interpretation of State that successfully conveys the centrality of its
concept for Fichte’s social, political and economic philosophy (point 4). Finally, based on an analysis
of The Closed Commercial State and The Characteristics of Present Age, we outline a classification of
the different concepts of State, developed from and included under a unity of meaning (point 5).
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