Natural Law Foundation (Translation of World Academic Classics Series)

Author: Fichte
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-09-01
Features: This book was previously included in the Selected Works of Fichte, Volume 2 (Commercial Press, 1994). Given that it is a work that profoundly and comprehensively embodies the democratic principle in German classical philosophy, it is now published as a standalone volume to provide it to a broader readership. As a classic of German philosophy, this work has been published in various languages numerous times. To the best of my knowledge, there are six German editions: the original edition, Part 1, published in Jena and Leipzig in 1796; Part 2, published in Jena and Leipzig in 1797. The second edition, included in the Complete Works of Fichte, Volume III, edited by I. H. Fichte, Berlin, 1845. The third edition, Leipzig, 1908. The fourth edition, Leipzig, 1922, included in Meiner's Philosophical Series, Volume 128. The fifth edition, Hamburg, 1960, included in Meiner's Philosophical Series, Volume 256. The sixth edition, included in the Complete Works of Fichte, Volume I of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Part 1, Stuttgart, 1966; Part 2, Stuttgart, 1970. Translations into other languages include: 1. English edition, translated by A. E. Kroeger, edition, Philadelphia, 1869; second edition, London, 1889; third edition, New York, 1970. Translated by M. Bauer, Cambridge and New York, 2000. 2. French edition, translated by A. Renaut, Paris, 1984. 3. Italian edition, translated by L. Fonnesu, Rome, 1994. 4. Japanese edition, included in the Japanese edition of the Complete Works of Fichte, Volume 6, published by Iwanami, 1997. This book was translated ten years ago by two comrades, Xie Dekun and Cheng Zhimin, based on the third and fourth volumes of the Complete Works of Fichte, Volume I of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Our school has revised Xie Dekun's "Introduction" and , Part 2, Part 3, and Cheng Zhimin's "Introduction to Family Law" and "Introduction to International Law and World Citizen Law." Taking this opportunity to publish it as a standalone volume, the translators and I have made further revisions and corrections to the translation, doing our best to address any errors.
In terms of translation names, there are two points to note. , Rechtsgesetz is uniformly translated as "Law of Right," because it is relative to Naturgesetz (Law of Nature), just as Sittengesetz (Law of Morality) is relative to Naturgesetz. Specifically, Naturgesetz is the necessary law governing the entire natural world, while Rechtsgesetz and Sittengesetz are the free laws governing two distinct social realms. Second, Vernunftwesen was originally translated as "rational being," but it is now translated as "rational entity." The reason is that Fichte regards humans as "finite rational entities" (endliches Vernunftwesen) and God as "infinite rational entities" (unendliches Vernunftwesen), so we cannot say that God is an "infinite rational being," and thus translating Wesen as "entity" may be more accurate. Of course, when referring to natural things, we translate unvernünftiges Wesen as "irrational being."
The full title of this book is The Foundation of Natural Law Based on the Principles of Wissenschaftslehre. This means it is a study of the legal realm of human society that applies the principles of Wissenschaftslehre, and Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre is both a new metaphysics and a new logic. Therefore, understanding this book from the perspective of its metaphysical foundation will undoubtedly present certain difficulties. I often hear friends say that the latter half of this book is easier to understand than the former half, and the reason may lie here. However, just as we cannot skip the relatively more accessible "Teachings of Virtue" when studying Laozi's Tao Te Ching to ignore the more challenging "Teachings of the Way," we cannot focus solely on the parts discussing law while neglecting the philosophical sections when reading a classic work of legal philosophy.
To overcome this challenge, we might consider reading Fichte's popular works on Wissenschaftslehre before tackling this book, such as On the Concept of Wissenschaftslehre and New Perspectives on Wissenschaftslehre, to gain the necessary preparatory knowledge in the realm of metaphysics. This may help us better understand this classic philosophical work.