Fichte and Human Rights

• Applicant: Dr. Esther Lea Neuhann
• Subject Area: Practical Philosophy ; History of Philosophy
• Term: from 2021 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 451551446

In the project, I reconstruct Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s (1762-1814) conception of human rights and show that it provides fruitful insights for the current state of the philosophy of human rights. Fichte’s most important works regarding the topic of human rights are "Contribution to the Rectification of the Public’s Judgment on the French Revolution" (1793) and "Foundations of Natural Right, according to the Principles of the Wissenschaftslehre" (1796/7). Fichte’s view changed considerably over the course of a few years: While he attempted to ground human rights in morality in 1793, he aimed at their non-moral justification in 1796. The focus of the project is on the later position. The chapter on the “deduction of original right” is decisive for the reconstruction of Fichte’s position in the "Foundations of Natural Right". Regarding the contemporary relevance of Fichte’s approach, four systematically attractive and innovative features of Fichte’s conception of human rights are worth highlighting: a) Fichte’s approach is relational: human rights are meant to protect a particular form of social relation between persons (“free reciprocal efficacy” [freie Wechselwirkung]). Fichte is therefore immune to the criticism that human rights are based on an atomistic conception of the person or of freedom. b) For Fichte, an important aspect of human rights is that they ought to protect a person’s body [Leib]. Crucially, he does not conceive of the human body in merely biological terms. As a consequence, Fichte is able to stress the importance of the inviolability of the human body for the idea of human rights without being vulnerable to the criticism that human rights merely protect “bare life” (Agamben). c) Human rights have a specific normativity for Fichte: Their normativity is not of the moral kind, but genuinely belongs to the realm of ‘right’ (Recht). Nevertheless, Fichte does not succumb to positivism. d) For Fichte, human rights play two interrelated roles: they describe the minimal features of any rightful state (the basic right-role) and provide normative orientation for the relation between states (external role).

• DFG Programme: WBP Position