[Literature] Johann Gottlieb Fichte: The Vocation of the Scholar #13/24

The law says, “Cultivate all thy faculties completely and uniformly, so far as thou canst;” but it does not determine whether I shall exercise them directly upon Nature, or indirectly through intercourse with my fellowmen. On this point the choice is thus left entirely to my own prudence. The law says, “Subdue Nature to thy purposes;” but it does not say that if I should find Nature already sufficiently adapted to certain of my purposes by other men, I should nevertheless myself adapt it to all the possible purposes of humanity. Hence the law does not forbid me to choose a particular class; but neither does it enjoin me to do so, for precisely the same reason which prevents the prohibition. I am now in the field of Free Will; I maychoose a class, and I must now look out for quite other grounds of determination than those which are derived immediately from the law itself, on which to resolve the question, not “What class shall I choose?”—(of this we shall speak at another time)—but, “Shall I choose any class at all, or shall I not?”

As things are at present, man is born in society. He finds Nature no longer rude, but already prepared in many respects for his purposes. He finds a multitude of men employed in its different departments, cultivating it on every side for the use of rational beings. He finds much already done which otherwise he would have had to do for himself. He might perhaps enjoy a very pleasant existence without ever applying his own powers immediately to Nature; he might even attain a kind of perfection by the enjoyment of what society has already accomplished, and in particular of what it has done for its own cultivation. But this may not be; he must at least endeavour to repay his debt to society; he must take his place among men; he must at least strive to forward in some respect the perfection of the race which has done so much for him.

And to that end two ways present themselves: eitherhe may determine to cultivate Nature on all sides; and, in this case, he would perhaps require to apply his whole life, or many lives if he had them, even to acquire a knowledge of what has been already done by others before him and of what remains to do; and thus his life would be lost to the human race, not indeed from evil intent, but from lack of wisdom: orhe may take up some particular department of Nature, with the previous history of which he is perhaps best acquainted, and for the cultivation of which he is best adapted by natural capacity and social training, and devote himself exclusively to that. In the latter case, he leaves his own culture in its other departments to Society, whose culture in that department which he has chosen for himself is the sole object of his resolves, his labours, his desires; and thus he has selected a class, and his doing so is perfectly legitimate. But still this act of freedom is, like all others, subject to the universal moral law, in so far as that law is the rule of our actions; or to the categorical imperative, which I may thus express: “Never let the determinations of thy will be at variance with thyself;” a law which, as expressed in this formula, may be fulfilled by every one, since the determinations of our will do not depend upon Nature but on ourselves alone.

The choice of a class is a free choice; therefore no man whatever ought to be compelled to any particular class, nor be shut out from any. Every individual action, as well as every general arrangement, which proceeds on such compulsion, is unjust. It is unwiseto force a man into one class, or to exclude him from another; because no man can have a perfect knowledge of the peculiar capacities of another, and because a member is often lost to society altogether, in consequence of being thrust into an improper place. But laying this out of view, such a course is unjustin itself, for it sets our deed itself in opposition to our practical conception of it. We wish to give society a member, and we make a tool;we wish to have a free fellow-workmanin the great business of life, and we create an enslaved and passive instrument;we destroy the man within him, so far as we can do so by our arrangements, and are guilty of an injury both to him and to society.