The Legislation of Reason. The Principle of Contradiction and the Category of Negation in Fichte

Abstract

In my paper, I argue that for Fichte – in contrast to Kant – the principle of contradiction became the transcendental principle of object constitution. Fichte already speaks of a real validity of the principle of contradiction in his Review of Aenesidemus. When in the Foundation of the Entire Wissenschaftslehre, the category of negation is developed from the principle of contradiction through a two-stage abstraction process, it becomes evident that the principle possesses at least as much “transcendental content” (in Kant’s sense) as the category itself. This also implies that the principle of contradiction can no longer remain a part of a logic that plays no epistemological role but merely describes the rules of thought.