Identity and normativity in Fichte and Hegel

Abstract

The article aims at reconstructing the connection betweenthe agent's conscious identity and his orientation through categorically valid norms, as it is established in Fichte and Hegel. It is through this connection that Fichte and Hegel wanted to develop further the kantian idea of autonomy. While Fichte introduced the conception of normative identity within the framework of a theory of individual morality, Hegel transformed this idea in his conception of ethical identity, which is founded on society's normative practice. It is argued that Hegel, as consequence of this, established a closer relation between identity and recognition than Fichte, who first introduced the conception of recognition in post-kantian philosophy.