The Closed Commercial State

by Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Anthony Curtis Adler

Appearing for the first time in a complete English translation, The Closed Commercial State represents the most sustained attempt of J. G. Fichte, the famed author of The Doctrine of Science, to apply idealistic philosophy to political economy. In the accompanying interpretive essay, Anthony Curtis Adler challenges the conventional scholarly view of The Closed Commercial State as a curious footnote to Fichte s thought. The Closed Commercial State, which Fichte himself regarded as his best, most thought-through work, not only attests to a life-long interest in economics, but is of critical importance to his entire philosophical project. Carefully unpacking the philosophical nuances of Fichte s argument and its complex relationship to other texts in his oeuvre, Adler argues that The Closed Commercial State presents an understanding of the nature of history, and the relation of history to politics, that differs significantly from the teleological notions of history advanced by Schelling and later Hegel. This critical scholarly edition includes a German-English glossary, annotations, and page references to both major German editions."

Genres: Philosophy

259 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1800

About the author

Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a German philosopher. He was one of the founding figures of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, a movement that developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kant. Fichte is often perceived as a figure whose philosophy forms a bridge between the ideas of Kant and the German Idealist Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. Recently, philosophers and scholars have begun to appreciate Fichte as an important philosopher in his own right due to his original insights into the nature of self-consciousness or self-awareness. Like Descartes and Kant before him, the problem of subjectivity and consciousness motivated much of his philosophical rumination. Fichte also wrote political philosophy, and is thought of by some as the father of German nationalism.
His son, Immanuel Hermann Fichte, was also a renowned philosopher.

Reviews

[Hendrik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bekanntermaßen verhalf der Wahlsieg von @realDonaldTrump , George Orwells "1984" zu erneuter Popularität. Ein unlängst in der FAS veröffentlichter Artikel, empfahl seinen Lesern, sich besser mit Johann Gottlieb Fichtes Schrift "Der geschlossene Handelsstaat" gegen die neue Herausforderung zu wappnen.
Im Jahr 1800 erschienen, entwirft Fichte die Utopie eines wirtschaftlich autarken Nationalstaats. Der Bedarf an Verbrauchsgütern soll fast ausschließlich mittels heimischer Produktion gedeckt werden. Kein unfairer Handel mehr mit dem Ausland. Keine ungleichen Handelsbilanzen, die laut Fichte die Ursache zahlreicher Verwerfungen zwischen den Nationalstaaten sind. Die Arbeit und das Geld bleiben im eigenen Land. Denn es gibt nichts auf der Welt, was man nicht mit eigenen Mitteln selbst herstellen könnte (z.B. "american steel for american pipelines") Man sieht die Idee des "Buy American, Hire American" hatte einen prominenten deutschen Vorläufer. Dergestalt sollte sich ein individueller Nationalcharakter herausbilden und ein homogener Nationalstaat, unabhängig von äußeren Einflüssen, entstehen.
Zweifel an diesem protektionistischen Traumland bleiben jedoch angebracht. Denn dieser geschlossene Handelsstaat, erinnert in seiner Ausgestaltung doch sehr an die failed DDR (inkl. eingeschränkter Reisefreiheit für die Bürger, Ausnahmen nur für Wissenschaftler und Künstler). Aber so weit wird es wohl nicht kommen … oder?

[Mariam Rawwas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is perfectly, exactly wrong, but singularly fascinating in the way in which it manages to get everything completely backwards. Instead of bringing the domain of the commercial state back into line with that of the juridical state, the domain of the juridical state should be extended to match that of the commercial state (which is merely to say, the development of actually enforceable international law). But the intuition that the two domains should be equivalent, I think is fundamentally correct, even if Fichte's solution is exactly opposite to the correct one. I'm sure there are connections to make between Fichte's political economy and his philosophy (the self-positing I is nothing if not liberal subjecthood itself), but I have not truly engaged with the latter, and this just convinces me moreso of the unnecessity in doing so.

[Lily]

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