Fichteʼs Performative Theory of Self-Knowledge

Self-knowledge is intrinsic to Fichte’s ethics as well as his vision for moral self-development and national renewal. I argue that this self-knowledge is performative in the Austinian sense. That is, the immediate self-awareness that an agent, when acting, of herself as the one acting, a self-consciousness that is sufficient to ground self-reference, is a performative awareness. This is the immediate self-consciousness that is intrinsic to self-positing or free self-determination that Fiche summons his auditors and readers to reflectively retrieve. I contend that the performative interpretation discloses further agential awareness that is central to moral self-development and virtuous deliberation.