Fichte, Philosopher of Freedom

"Mine is the first system of freedom. Just as France freed man from external shackles, so my system frees him from the fetters of things in themselves, which is to say, from those external influences with which all previous systems – including the Kantian – have more or less fettered man. Indeed, the first principle of my system presents man as an independent being." (Quoted in Editor's Introduction of J. G. Fichte Introductions to the Wissenschaftslehre and Other Writings trans. Daniel Breazeale (Hackett: Indianapolis, 1994), p. vii.

The reference to France, just in case anyone needs to know, is to the French Revolution of 1789.

Fichte is claiming that his theory is going to do in the philosophic sphere what the French Revolution did in the political.

The "things in themselves" are Kantian placeholders for objects in the so-called real world which cause the appearances we see and otherwise sense but which cannot themselves be sensed. In other words, things in themselves are objects as they exist apart from being sensed – a condition humans cannot hope to observe, for obvious reasons. Fichte's system will do away with any reliance on Kantian things-in-themselves.