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98 THE FOURFOLD ROOT. [CHAP. IV.
try and compare, let alone identify, such an honest, deep,
thorough analysis of empirical perception as the one I have
just given, which proves all the elements of perception to
be subjective, with Fichte s algebraic equations of the Ego
and the Non-Ego ; with his sophistical pseudo-demonstra
tions, which in order to be able to deceive his readers had
to be clothed in the obscure, not to say absurd, language
with his explanations of the way in which
adopted by him ;
the Ego spins the Non-Ego out of itself ;
the buffoonery of scientific emptiness. 1
in short, with all
Besides, I protest
altogether against any community with this Fichte, as Kant
publicly and emphatically did in a notice ad hoc in the
"
Jenaer Litteratur Zeitung." Hegelians and similar
ignoramuses may continue to hold forth to their heart s
content upon Kant-Fichteian philosophy : there exists a
Kantian philosophy and a Fichteian hocus-pocus, this is
the true state of the case, and will remain so, in spite of those
who delight in extolling what is bad and in decrying what
is good, and of these Germany possesses a larger number
than any other country.
. 22. Of the Immediate Object.
Thus it is from the sensations of our body that we
receive the data for the very first application of the causal
law, and it is precisely by that application that the percep
tion of this class of objects arises. They therefore have
their essence and existence solely in virtue of the intel
lectual function thus coming into play, and of its
exercise.
1
Wissenschaftsleere (literally, emptiness of science}, a pun of Schopen
hauer s on the title of Fichte s Wissenschaftslehre (doctrine of science),
which cannot be rendered in English. (Tr. s Note.)
2
Kant, "Erklarung iiber Fichte s Wissenschaftslehre." See the
"
"
Intelligenzblatt of the Jena Literary Gazette (1799), No. 109.