FICHTE'S KANT-INTERPRETATION AND CRITIQUE AND THE 'GRUNDLAGE' OF 1794 (HERMENEUTICS, DECONSTRUCTION, GERMAN IDEALISM)

The main thesis of this dissertation is that Fichte's interpretation and critique of Kant plays a formative role in Fichte's works from 1794-1797.;On this basis it is shown that Fichte's treatment of Kant constitutes a negative application of an eminent work, an interpretative strategy which has not been recognized either by the classical theorists of hermeneutics and critique or by the modern proponents of a "philosophical" hermeneutics. Furthermore, it is held that if deconstruction is conceived as an interpretative and critical procedure or strategy, and conceived only in this way, then it can be incorporated into the core of hermeneutics and critique. Deconstruction thus comes to the same thing as the negative application of an eminent work. The methodical character of Fichte's Kant-interpretation and critique is therefore deconstructive, a trait which determines the interpretative and critical strategems of Hegel and the early Schelling. Accordingly, it is suggested that the unity of German idealism lies in interpretation, specifically the negative application of eminent works (or deconstruction).;On the basis of the investigation of "On the Concept of the Science of Knowledge" (Ueber den Begriff der Wissenschaftslehre), it is shown that the Grundlage der gesamten Wissenschaftslehre is not a Science of Knowledge (Wissenschaftslehre). The scopus of the Grundlage is determined to be the clarification and defense of the Grundsatz, basic principle, of the Science of Knowledge, namely the I as Idea. Accordingly, the 'first' Grundsatz of the Grundlage is seen as an abstractum, whose concretum is the I as Idea. This constellation of abstractum and concretum determines a system.;Fichte's Kant-interpretation and critique embodies the limit of hermeneutics and critique which is reached in August Boeckh's reflection on hermeneutical reason, in which interpretation and critique, meaning and truth, merge, coalesce. This indicates that the object of interpretation and criticism is an eminent work, namely Kant's Critique of Pure Reason.