Fichte, Johann Gottlieb << FIHK tuh, YOH hahn GAWT leep >> (1762-1814), was a German philosopher. He strongly influenced German social thought as well as two branches of philosophy, metaphysics and aesthetics. Fichte also influenced the ideas of the German philosophers Friedrich Schelling and G. W. F. Hegel.
Fichte was a follower of the idealism of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Idealism holds that only ideas are real. Fichte believed that the mind is the essence of the universe. Our ideas, he maintained, do not come from experience of the material world. Instead, our minds are part of the universal creative mind. Fichte dealt with these ideas in his Foundation of the Complete Theory of Knowledge (1794). His chief political work is the patriotic Addresses to the German Nation (1808). In it, Fichte expressed his faith in German culture and national spirit. The book had a major impact on German nationalism.
Fichte was born on May 19, 1762, in Rammenau, near Bautzen. He taught at the University of Jena from 1794 to 1799. He was a popular lecturer but lost his position after being accused of atheism. He served on the faculty of the University of Berlin from 1810 until his death on Jan. 27, 1814.
