Life, Nature and affective nihilism in Fichte

This paper considers Fichte’s philosophy from the standpoint of the concept of nihilism: I contend that Fichte subordinates the emotional life to the moral imperative. After leaving Jena, Fichte would have tried to answer Jacobi’s objections, making the concept of life his central philosophical concern. This attempt at reconciling the primacy of the moral imperative and a relevant concept of life (in response to Jacobi) would allow us to understand Fichte’s philosophy in the Berlin period and, in particular, his concept of the absolut