"Die Französische Revolution, Fichtes Wissenschaftslehre, und Goethes Meister sind die gröBten Tendenzen des Zeitalters" (The French Revolution, Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre, and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister are the three greatest tendencies of the age), wrote Friedrich Schlegel in 1798. Even if one takes this comment in context (Schlegel called his time "the age of tendencies") and with a pinch of aphoristic salt, it serves to indicate how important philosophy could seem, in its strategic place between political and poetic revolutions. The French had, after all, only changed the world: the important thing, however, was to interpret it. The aphorism serves, moreover, to bring out the prestige enjoyed by Fichte's system--or, rather, attempts at system--with Romantic poets and literary theorists, among them Novalis, Friedrich Hölderlin, and the Schlegel brothers.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte was significant not just with respect to literary culture but also in philosophy, education, and...