FICHTE, IMMANUEL HERMANN. — Philosopher, b. at Jena on 18 July 1796, d. at Stuttgart on 8 August 1879, son of Johann Gottlieb (q.v.), whose works he published. He taught for a short time at Bonn, and then for many years at Tübingen.
He was the leader of the movement known as the “speculative theism,” which, reacting against Hegelian panlogism and pantheism, sought to reaffirm the content of Christian faith in closer relation to natural science and philosophy, understanding their mutual relative interdependence. To this end, in 1837 he founded the journal *Zeitschrift für Philosophie und speculative Theologie* (from 1847 *Zeitschrift für Philosophie und philosophische Kritik*). His theoretical position is already set forth in *Beiträge zur Charakteristik der inneren Philosophie* (Sulzbach 1829; 2nd ed., greatly enlarged, 1874), in which some influence of Hegelian thought is still discernible. Among his other works are the *Grundzüge des Systems der Philosophie* (3 vols., Heidelberg 1833–46; the second, *Die spekulative Theologie oder allgemeine Religionslehre*, is the most important). His culminating work is *Die theistische Weltanschauung und ihre Durchführung* (Leipzig 1873). See also *Der neuere Spiritualismus* (1878), in which his conception of spirit extends into spiritualism. Many other writings deal with psychology, anthropology, ethics, law, etc.