The Vocation of Man in Society (Johann Fichte 1794)
Channel: Craig Campbell
Date: 19/03/2014

Johann Gottlieb Fichte lived in the Free State of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire from 1762-1814. He delivered lectures about The Vocation of the Scholar at Jena University in 1794 to a large group of students. Here is a quote:

"ourselves,—or men. The conception of man is an ideal conception, because the perfection of man, in so far as he is such, is unattainable. Each individual has his own particular ideal of man in general; these ideals are different in degree, though not in kind; each tries by his own ideal every being whom he recognises as a man. By this fundamental impulse each is prompted to seek in others a likeness to his own ideal; he inquires, he observes on all sides, and when he finds men below this ideal, he strives to elevate them to it. In this struggle of mind with mind, he always triumphs who is the highest and best man; and thus from the idea of Society arises that of the perfection of the race, and we have thus also discovered the ultimate purpose of all Society as such."

Read all five of the lectures delivered in 1794 here.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Vocation_of_the_Scholar