University of Tabriz Journal of Philosophical Investigations 2251-7960 15 34 2021 04 21 The Social Constitution of Self for Fichte The Social Constitution of Self for Fichte 1 22 12680 10.22034/jpiut.2021.40769.2618 FA Arash Abazari Assistant Professor, philosophy of science, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran. İran Journal Article 2020 07 16 What I call in this paper “the sociality of subjectivity thesis” lies at the very center of what is now called “Continental philosophy”. According to this thesis, the subject is necessarily socially constituted. In other words, it is not the case that there are first some isolated subjects, who then get into relation with each other; rather, the subjects from the beginning are formed through their interrelation. The first philosopher who systematically argued for this thesis is Johann Gottlieb Fichte. In this paper, I reconstruct Fichte’s argument, as it appears in his 1796 <em>Foundations of Natural Right</em>. The central idea of this reconstruction is the following: for Fichte, the subject can regard herself as the genuine author of her actions, only when she presupposes that there are other subjects who can ascribe those actions to her. That is, the activity of self-ascription, which constitutes the subject, is only possible with the presupposition that there are other subjects.   What I call in this paper “the sociality of subjectivity thesis” lies at the very center of what is now called “Continental philosophy”. According to this thesis, the subject is necessarily socially constituted. In other words, it is not the case that there are first some isolated subjects, who then get into relation with each other; rather, the subjects from the beginning are formed through their interrelation. The first philosopher who systematically argued for this thesis is Johann Gottlieb Fichte. In this paper, I reconstruct Fichte’s argument, as it appears in his 1796 <em>Foundations of Natural Right</em>. The central idea of this reconstruction is the following: for Fichte, the subject can regard herself as the genuine author of her actions, only when she presupposes that there are other subjects who can ascribe those actions to her. That is, the activity of self-ascription, which constitutes the subject, is only possible with the presupposition that there are other subjects.   https://philosophy.tabrizu.ac.ir/article_12680_88bcdf841c927d985ddeffe53a2d9ca2.pdf