Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/148

 138 I C F I C with this deduction the first form of the WissenscMftslehre appeared to end. (c) But in fact deeper questions remained. We have spoken of the ego as becoming aware of its own freedom, and have shown how the existence of other egos and of a world in -which these egos may act are the necessary conditions of consciousness of freedom. But all this is the work of the ego. All that has been expounded follows if the ego comes to consciousness. We have therefore to consider that the absolute ego, from which spring all the individual egos, is not subject to these conditions, but freely determines itself to them. How is this absolute ego to be conceived ? As early as 1797 Fichte had begun to see that the ultimate basis of his system was the abso lute ego, m which is no difference of subject and object ; in 1800 the Bcstimmunrf dcs McnscJien defined this absolute ego as the in finite moral will of the universe, God, in whom are all the individ ual egos, from whom they have sprung. It lay in the nature of the thing that more precise utterances should be given on this subject, and these we find in the Thatsaclicndcs Bewusstscyns and in all the later lectures. God in them is the absolute Life, the absolute One, who becomes conscious of himself by self-diremption into the individ ual egos. The individual ego is only possible as opposed to a non- ego, to a world of the senses ; thus God, the infinite will, manifests himself in the individual, and the individual has over against him the non-ego or thing. &quot; The individuals do not make part of the being of the one life, but are a pure form of its absolute freedom.&quot; &quot; The individual is not conscious of himself, but the Life is conscious of itself in individual form and as an individual.&quot; In order that the Life may act, though it is not necessary that it should act, in- dividualization is necessary. Thus, &quot; says Fichte, we reach a final conclusion. Knowledge is not mere knowledge of itself, but of being, and of the one being that truly is, viz., God. . . This one possible object of knowledge is never known in its purity, but ever broken into the various forms of knowledge which are and can be shown to be necessary. The demonstration of the necessity of these forms is philosophy or Wissenschaftslehre&quot; (Thats. dcs. JBcwuss., IVcrke, ii. 685). This ultimate view is expressed throughout the lectures (in the Nachgel. WcrTcc) in uncouth and mystical language. It will escape no one (1) how the idea and method of the IVissenschaftslehre prepare the way for the later Hegelian dialectic, and (2) how completely the whole philosophy of Schopenhauer is contained in the later writings of Fichte. It is not to the credit of historians that Schopenhauer s debt should have been allowed to pass with so little notice. Fichte s complete works have been published by his son, J. IT. Fichte ; W?rke 11 vols. (vols. i.-viii., 1845-6; ix.-xi. Nacligelassene Werke, 1834); also the Leben nnd Brief tcechsel, 2 vols., 1830 (2cl ed. 1862). The most complete works on his philosophy are Busse, Fichte imil seine Beziehung zur Gegemcart, 1848-9; Lowe, Die Philosophie Fichte s, 1862 ; Noack, FicMe nach seinem Lfben, Lehren, wid Wirken, 1862 ; Fischer, Geschichte d. neuern Phi/osophie,v., 1868-9. See also the histories of post-Kantian philosophy by Erdmann, Fortlage (whose account is remarkably good), Michelet, Biednrinann, and others. Dr Wi. liam Smith has trans lated many of the later and more popular writings, and has contributed a very excellent biography of Fichte (Popular Writings of Fichte, with Memoir, new edition 1871) ; Kroeger has translated the best portions of the Wissenschaftslehre (Science of Knowledge, Philadelphia, 186S) and the Ht aturrecht (Science of Rights, 1870). Several other pieces have been translated in the St Louis Journal of Specu lative Philosophy. (It. AD.) FICHTELGEBIRGE, a mountain group of Bavaria, Germany, forming the centre from which three extensive mountain ranges proceed, the Erzgebirge in a N.E., the Frankenwald in a N.W., and the Bohmerwald in a S.E. direction. The streams to which it gives rise flow towards the four cardinal points, e.g., the Eger eastward and the Saale northward, both to the Elbe ; the Main westward to the Rhine, and the Naab southward to the Danube. The chief points of the mass are the Schneeberg and the Ochsenkopf, the former having a height of 3490, and the latter of 3340 feet. The whole district is pretty thickly populated, and there is great abundance of wood, as well as of iron, vitriol, sulphur, copper, lead, and many kinds of marble. In some of the streams mother-of-pearl is found. The inhabitants are employed chiefly in the iron mines, at forges and blast furnaces, and in charcoal burn ing and the manufacture of blacking from firewood. The Fichtelgebirge are not much visited by strangers, the only important points of interest being Alexandersbad (a delight fully situated watering-place) and the sandstone labyrinth of Luisenburg. FICINO, MARSILIO (1433-1499), was born at Figline, m the upper Arno valley, in the year 1433. His father, a phy sician of some eminence, settled in Florence, and attached himself to the person of Cosimo de Medici. Here the young Marsilio received his elementary education in gram mar and Latin literature at the high school or studio pubblico. Yhile still a boy, he showed promise of rare literary gifts, and distinguished himself by his facility in the acquisition of knowledge. Not only literature, but the physical sciences, as then taught, had a charm for him ; and he is said to have made considerable progress in medicine under the tuition of his father. He was of a tranquil temperament, sensitive to music and poetry, and debarred by weak health from joining in the more active pleasures of his fellow students. When he had attained the age of eighteen or nineteen years, Cosimo received him into his household, and determined to make use of his rare disposition for scholarship in the development of a long cherished project. During the session of the council for the union of the Greek and Latin churches at Florence in 1439, Cosimo had made acquaintance with Gemistos Plethon, the ISTeo-Platonic sage of Mistra, whose discourses upon Plato and the Alexandrian mystics so fascinated the learned society of Florence that they named him the second Plato. It had been the dream of this man s whole life to supersede both forms of Christianity by a semi-pagan theosophy deduced from the writings of the later Pytha goreans and Platonists. When, therefore, he perceived the impression he had made upon the first citizen of Florence, Gemistos suggested that the capital of modern culture would be a fit place for the resuscitation of the once so famous Academy of Athens. Cosimo took this hint. The second half of the 15th century was destined to be the age of Academies in Italy, and the regnant passion for antiquity satisfied itself with any imitation, however grotesque, of Greek or Roman institutions. In order to found his new Academy upon a firm basis Cosimo resolved, not only to assemble men of letters for the purpose of Platonic disputation at certain regular intervals, but also to appoint a hierophant and official expositor of Platonic doctrine. He hoped by these means to give a certain stability to his projected institution, and to avoid the superficiality of mere enthusiasm. The plan was good ; and with the rare instinct for character which distinguished him, he made choice of the right man for his purpose in the young Marsilio. Before he had begun to learn Greek, Marsilio entered upon the task of studying and elucidating Plato. It is known that at this early period of his life, while he was yet a novice, he wrote voluminous treatises on the great philosopher, which he afterwards, however, gave to the flames. In the year 1459 John Argyropoulos was lecturing on the Greek language and literature at Florence, and Marsilio became his pupil. He was then about twenty- three years of age. Seven years later he felt himself a sufficiently ripe Greek scholar to begin the translation of Plato, by which his name is famous in the history of scholarship, and which is still the best translation of that author Italy can boast. The MSS. on which he worked were supplied by his patron Cosimo de Medici and by Amerigo Benci. While the translation was still in progress Ficino from time to time submitted its pages to the scholars, Angelo Poliziano, Cristoforo Landino, Demetrios Chal- chondylas, and others ; and since these men were all members of the Platonic Academy, there can be no doubt that the discussions raised upon the text and Latin version greatly served to promote the purpose of Cosimo s founda tion. At last the book appeared in 1482, the expenses of the press being defrayed by the noble Florentine, Filippo Yalori. About the same time Marsilio completed and pub lished his treatise on the Platonic doctrine of immortality (Theologia Platonica de Immortalitate Anima. ), the work by which his claims to take rank as a philosopher must be estimated. This was shortly followed by the translation of Plotinus into Latin, and by a voluminous commentary, the