Das System der Sittenlehre nach Prinzipien der Wissenschaftslehre.

Jena u. Leipzig, bei Christian Ernst Gabler, 1798. 8vo. Recent hcalf. Gilt spine and with gilt lettering. (2),494 pp. The ""Vorwort"" lacking. A few underlining, otherwise fine.

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First edition of one of Fichte's most important works, the ""System of Ethics"" (or ""System of a Theory of Morals""), which constitutes the second of his two main practical works. With this work the foundation of the practical side of Fichte's system is laid, and it represents one of the cornerstones of German idealism. (See PMM 224). ""If Kant had opened up the path which German, and indeed all, philosophy was to take in the nineteenth century, the credit for the complete description of its subject-matter belongs to Fichte."" (PMM 244, p. 148).Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) was of one of the founding thinkers of German idealism. He is considered a very important philosopher in at least two respects: 1) as the uniter of the ideas of the two great - Kant and Hegel -, and as an important philosopher in himself, who has contributed originally to the philosophy of the self. By some he is considered the father of German nationalism.