Rights, Bodies and Recognition

Daniel Breazeale is Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, University of Kentucky, USA. Tom Rockmore is Professor of Philosophy at the Department of Philosophy, Duquesne University, USA.

• Contents: Introduction; Is Fichte a social contract theorist?, Wayne M. Martin; Fichte’s impossible contract, Michael Baur; Recognition, right and social contract, Robert R. Williams; On the fundamental connection between moral law and natural right in Fichte’s Contribution (1793) and Foundations of Natural Right (1796/97), Violetta L. Waibel; Fichte’s hypothetical imperative: morality, right, and philosophy in the Jena Wissenschaftslehre, Yolanda Estes; The role of the human body in Fichte’s Grundlage des Naturrechts (1796-97), Angelica Nuzzo; Fichte’s Foundations of Natural Right and the mind-body problem, Günter Zöller; Fichte’s materialism, Bruce Merrill; The 'mixed method' of Fichte’s Grundlage des Naturrechts and the limits of transcendental Reellephilosophie, Daniel Breazeale; An aesthetics of influence: Fichte’s Foundations of Natural Right in view of Kant’s third critique, F. Scott Scribner; Fichte’s theory of gender relations in his Foundations of Natural Right, Bärbel Frischmann; Political obligation and the imagination in Fichte’s Naturrecht, Jefferey Kinlaw; The universality of human rights and the sovereignty of the state in Fichte’s Doctrine of Right, Hans Georg von Manz; Schelling’s aphorisms on natural right (1796/97): a comparison with Fichte’s Grundlage des Naturrechts, Michael G. Vater; Transcendental conditions and the transcendence of conditions: Fichte and Schelling on the foundations of natural right, Steven Hoeltzel; Fichte, Heidegger and the Nazis, Tom Rockmore; Rights, recognition, and regulative ideas: on the relationship between Fichte’s theory of rights and contemporary liberation philosophies, Arnold Farr.

’What is interesting about this collection is that all the articles are truly essayistic. They single out certain issues in the theory of natural rights, issues that open up the text for further research. As such it gives testimony to the quite wonderful resurgence in Fichte studies. ... Though we have not yet seen a comprehensive study on Foundations of Natural Right appear in the English language, this collection will serve to inspire someone to such a work.’ Philosophy in Review