Fichte and Human Rights
History of Philosophy
Final Report Abstract
In the project “Fichte and Human Rights” I reconstructed Fichte’s theory of human rights from his work Grundlage des Naturrechts nach Prinzipien der Wissenschaftslehre (1796/7) [Foundations of Natural Right, FNR] in detail and showed its relevance to the contemporary discourse on human rights. In the FNR, Fichte introduces “one true human right that belongs to the human being as such [das eigentliche Menschenrecht, das den Menschen, als Menschen, zukommt]: the right to be able to acquire rights” (FNR: 333; GA, I.4: 163). Other candidates for human rights in the FNR are the two “original rights”, rights that “are contained in the mere concept of the person” (FNR: 87; GA, I.3: 390) but are, according to Fichte, a “mere fiction” (FNR: 102; GA, I.3: 403f.) absent a political community. I interpret this constellation of the one human right and the original rights as Fichte’s complex conception of human rights: We have a human right to live in a political community in which at least the two original rights are secured. Substantially, I interpret the two original rights as the right to bodily (leibliche) integrity and the right to sufficient property. With respect to the first original right, it is crucial to understand what exactly Fichte means by Leib (as opposed to Körper). Fichte introduces the body (Leib) as the medium of free action and non-violent interaction of persons in the second main division of the FNR. It is thus this body (Leib) that is to be protected by the first original right. Therefore, it differs from a right to bodily (körperliche) integrity in a narrow sense or a right to mere physical survival. For a precise understanding of the second original right, it is necessary to consider Fichte’s theory of property. For Fichte, one has property in actions rather than in objects. The right to sufficient property amounts to the right to be able to carry out an activity (work) in a social system of the division of labor, which provides for one’s own subsistence. I see establishing and securing a relation of “free reciprocal efficacy” (FNR: 33; GA, I.3: 344) as the superordinate goal of both original rights. This is significant in that this is a normatively less demanding relation than a relation of (full) recognition or a relation of right in Fichte. Moreover, that human rights ought to secure a normatively relatively low threshold fits with the widespread view of such rights as minimum standards. The aforementioned complex understanding of human rights emphasizes the perspective of viewing these rights as minimum conditions for the internal organization of political communities. However, the external role of human rights (the function of normatively structuring relations between states and non-compatriots) is also part of Fichte’s picture. To reconstruct the external role of human rights, especially of the second original right to sufficient property, I also draw on Fichte’s slightly later text Der geschlossene Handelsstaat (1800) [The Closed Commercial State]. In doing so, I distinguish between three dimensions of global justice that Fichte’s conception of human rights has implications for: cosmopolitan right, the right of nations and economic relations. From a contemporary perspective, Fichte’s particular conceptualization of bodily (leibliche) integrity and property, as well as his relational understanding of rights, are of particular interest.
Publications
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„Von schlechtem Sex zur patriarchalen Ehe? Überlegungen zu Fichtes Geschlechtertheorie in der Grundlage des Naturrechts”, in: prae|faktisch. Ein Philosophieblog.
Esther Lea Neuhann
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Die Grundlagen der Menschenrechte: moralisch, politisch oder sozial? „Schriftenreihe der Sektion Politische Theorie und Ideengeschichte in der DVPW“, Baden-Baden: Nomos. ISBN: 978-3-7560-0619-9
Esther Lea Neuhann; Johannes Haaf; Luise K. Müller & Markus Wolf
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Toril Moi's Phenomenological Account of “Woman” and Questions of Trans Inclusivity. Hypatia, 38(2), 251-274.
Neuhann, Esther Lea
