Schelling and Fichte on the Deduction of Right from Ichheit

Abstract This article presents a comparative reading of Schelling's Neue Deduktion des Naturrechts and Fichte's Grundlage des Naturrechts. Both thinkers adopt the idealist strategy of deducing right (Recht) from I-hood (Ichheit) and insist, as a result, that right neither derives from nor depends on the moral law. But while Fichte deduces right from the “pure I-hood” uncovered in intellectual intuition, Schelling deduces it from the “absolute I-hood” postulated by practical reason. This difference generates a disagreement regarding the derivative relationship between right and morality. Whereas Fichte assigns right (unlike morality) a merely conditional and limited practical validity, Schelling contends that right is as unconditionally and universally valid as the moral law.