Was Fichte a Proto-Fascist

Dados Bibliográficos

ID3971667
AutoresRobert L Phillips (0000-0002-1591-5145, University College London (UCL), autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume30
Fascículo5
Páginas539-558
Data de publicação2025-07-04
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoThe European Legacy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1084-8770 • E-ISSN: 1470-1316
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10848770.2025.2500229
OpenAlexW4410874637
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas33

In the varied and diffuse reception history of Fichte’s political philosophy, the most widely discussed episode is the appreciation of Fichte in national socialist Germany. In this article, I reassess some aspects of that reception with an eye to determining whether Fichte could be called a proto-fascist. I begin this reassessment by first outlining Fichte’s account of political economy and nationhood. I then discuss the scholarship on fascism and national socialism more generally, with a particular focus on the theories of three scholars—Roger Griffin, Roger Eatwell, and Zeev Sternhell. I then analyse Fichte’s views on three central topics—the economy, Germany, and anti-Semitism—and conclude that, on the basis of the scholarly insights on fascism, Fichte was not a proto-fascist, though certain aspects of his writing and his style had a strong appeal to fascists

Critical Theory and Philosophy · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Philosophy · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought