Natural Right
FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb.
Grundlage des Naturrechts nach Principien des Wissenschaftslehre. Jena and Leipzig, Christian Ernest Gabler, 1796[–7].
Two vols in one, 8vo, pp. [xxiv], 229, [1 (errata)], [2 (blank)]; [ii], 269, [1]; yellow and black inskstains to title of first volume, some foxing as often, else good, in contemporary Pappband, gilt paper spine label; corners bumped, joints chipped.
First edition of Fichte’s ‘Foundation of Natural Right’, ‘thought by many to be his most important work of political philosophy’, in which he ‘applies his ideas to fundamental issues in political and legal philosophy, covering such topics as civic freedom, rights, private property, contracts, family relations, and the foundations of modern political organization." (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy).
The most important and original section of the Jena Wissenschaftslehre, the Grundlage des Naturrechts ‘is notable, first of all, because of the way in which it distinguishes sharply between the realm of ethics and that of “right” and tries to develop a complete theory of the latter (a “theory of justice”) without appealing to the categorical imperative or the moral law, and secondly, because of the inclusion within this theory of a thoroughly original “deduction” of the social character of human beings’ (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).