We are glad to give notice of the International Conference Fichte: Determination, Intersubjectivity and the State, which will take place on 11-13 March, 2026, at the University of Ljubljana (Cankarjev Dom, Alma Karlin).
The event is jointly organized by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, the Department of Philosophy (the research group The Common Between Substance and Subject), Goethe Institut Ljubljana and Cankarjev dom in collaboration with Luca Illetterati (University of Padua), Jimena Solé (University of Buenos Aires), Taiju Okochi (University of Kyoto), Frank Fischbach (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), and Zdravko Kobe (University of Ljubljana).
Below you can find the presentation and the program of the event.
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One of the defining features of Fichte’s philosophy is its emphasis on intersubjectivity: the idea that subjectivity is constituted through relations with other subjects. Specifically, the I is not an absolute, self-sufficient entity but emerges through limitation. The experience of limitation – captured in the notion of Anstoß (impulse) – is thus not external to the I but the condition of its possibility. This is the crux of Fichte’s theory of the Anstoß. Closely related is Fichte’s concept of Aufforderung (summons), which explicitly introduces the intersubjective dimension. It denotes the more specific idea that thinking as such, by conceptual necessity, already entails a social dimension – thought is, in essence, “a thought for two.” The immediate continuation of this idea is the notion of Anerkennung, which Fichte uses to describe the relation of reciprocity, equality, and symmetry necessary for a functional community. The notion of Anerkennung (recognition) proved profoundly influential, most immediately for Hegel, and later reemerged in contemporary political thought. Since recognition between subjects, for Fichte, is always immanent and grounded in logical necessity – independent of external circumstances – does his idea of intersubjectivity challenge or reinforce the authority of the state as an ethical institution, and in what ways? These questions remain pertinent and can be reconsidered in light of contemporary political and social dilemmas, which this conference seeks to address.
Program
Wednesday, 11 March
10:00-10:45 – Jimena Solé: The Wissenschaftslehre as a Revolutionary Program: A Reading of Fichte’s Beitrag
10:45-11:30 – Shunsuke Kudomi: Das Grundproblem von Fichtes Wissenschaftslehre. Das sich selbst setzende Ich und das Prinzip der Systematik
11:45-12:30 – Pardini Niccolò: Openness and Contingency: The Margins of the Non-I in Fichte’s Jena Practical Philosophy
12:30-13:15 – Taiju Okochi: Fichtes Gefühlsrealismus und moralischer Idealismus. Von der Wissenschaftslehre zum System der Sittenlehre
Thursday, 12 March
10:00-10:45 – Manja Kisner: Fichte’s Theory of Intersubjectivity and the Organicist Framework: A Reinterpretation
10:45-11:30 – Alberto Destasio: Leben and Overcoming of the State in Fichte
11:45-12:30 – Plato Tse: A Transcendental Tale of Two Primordial Races: Faith and Understanding in Fichte’s Staatslehre
12:30-13:15 – Goran Vranešević: Imagination’s Last Stand: From Fichte’s Theoretical Wavering to the Practical Struggle to the Death
14:15-15:00 – Bartosz Wójcik: War and the World Market: Reconstructing Fichte’s Political Economy of the State
15:00-15:45 – Gaetano Rametta: Politics beyond the State in Fichte’s Berlin Period
Friday, 13 March
10:00-10:45 – Jean Quétier: Fichte’s Theory of the State as Read by Marxists: A Conflict of Interpretations
10:45-11:30 – Lucas Damian Scarfia: Fichte and Weil: Work (Arbeit–Travail) as a Bridge between Determination and Freedom
11:45-12:30 – Roberta Picardi: Intersubjectivity, State and Colonialism in Fichte’s philosophy
12:30-13:15 – Marie Louise Krogh: What’s wrong with colonialism? A Fichtean response
For further information, please visit the website of the conference.
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