SOURCE: "Transcendentalism Perfected" and "Fichte on the Mission of Germany," in Egotism in German Philosophy, J. M. Dent and Sons Limited, and Charles Scribner's Sons, 1916, pp. 65-72 and 73-83.

In the two chapters below, Santayana addresses the irony that "Fichte, a prophet sprung from the people, a theoretical republican who quarrelled with his students for forming clubs and fighting duels, a fierce idealist full of contempt for worldlings, should have so perfectly supplied the Junkers and bankers with their philosophy. " He illustrates how Fichte's transcendental idealism, translated by the philosopher into nationalism, could become the nationalism of German fascism.

Transcendentalism Perfected

Fichte purified the system of Kant of all its inconsistent and humane elements; he set forth the subjective system of knowledge and action in its frankest and most radical form. The ego, in order to live a full and free life, posited or feigned a world of...