Life and void. On Fichte’s rejection of F. Schlegel’s Witz and irony

Abstract

This paper studies Fichte's rejection of the concepts of wit (Witz) and irony as it appears in the work Grundzüge des gegenwärtigen Zeitalters (1806). It is emphasized that this is the critique of a particular form of wit and irony, namely romantic. More rigorously, the opposition is shown with respect to the way in which Fichte alludes to the role of these concepts in subjective life, in relation to how Friedrich Schlegel reflects on them. The affinity between Fichte's theory and Hegel's philosophical development of the concept of irony - also insofar as the latter analyzes Schlegel's philosophy - is also highlighted. On this basis, it is hypothesized that Fichte's and Hegel's rejection of Schlegel's wit and irony is based on a religious and dogmatic overturning of their idealistic philosophical ideas. In parallel with this reading, it is stressed that it is only from the enhancement of Schlegel's consideration of the concepts studied -prior to his own turn towards religion and dogmatism-, that idealist -and romantic- philosophy can remain as a thought, besides coherent, valuable when conceiving the development of the existence of the subject in the world as a void in constant process of being filled.