Conference: “Fichte: determination, intersubjectivity and the state” (Ljubljana, 11-13 March 2026)

We are glad to announce the conference Fichte: Determination, Intersubjectivity and the State. The event will take place at Cankarjev dom (conference hall: Alma Karlin) on 11–13 March 2026. The event is jointly organized by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, the Department of Philosophy (the research group The Common Between Substance and Subject), Goethe Institut Ljubljana and Cankarjev dom in collaboration with Luca Illetterati (University of Padua), Jimena Solé (University of Buenos Aires), Taiju Okochi (University of Kyoto), Frank Fischbach (University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne), and Zdravko Kobe (University of Ljubljana). 

One of the defining features of Fichte’s philosophy is its emphasis on intersubjectivity: the idea that subjectivity is constituted through relations with other subjects. Specifically, the I is not an absolute, self-sufficient entity but emerges through limitation. The experience of limitation – captured in the notion of Anstoß (impulse) – is thus not external to the I but the condition of its possibility. This is the crux of Fichte’s theory of the Anstoß. Closely related is Fichte’s concept of Aufforderung (summons), which explicitly introduces the intersubjective dimension. It denotes the more specific idea that thinking as such, by conceptual necessity, already entails a social dimension – thought is, in essence, “a thought for two.” The immediate continuation of this idea is the notion of Anerkennung, which Fichte uses to describe the relation of reciprocity, equality, and symmetry necessary for a functional community. The notion of Anerkennung (recognition) proved profoundly influential, most immediately for Hegel, and later reemerged in contemporary political thought. Since recognition between subjects, for Fichte, is always immanent and grounded in logical necessity – independent of external circumstances – does his idea of intersubjectivity challenge or reinforce the authority of the state as an ethical institution, and in what ways? These questions remain pertinent and can be reconsidered in light of contemporary political and social dilemmas, which this conference seeks to address.

Speakers: 

• Alberto Destasio (Catania–DISUM)

• Manja Kisner (Nijmegen–Radboud)
• Marie Louise Krogh (Leiden)
• Shunsuke Kudomi (Kyoto)
• Pardini Niccolò (Namur/Paris Nanterre)
• Taiju Okochi (Kyoto)
• Roberta Picardi (Molise)
• Gaetano Rametta (Padova)
• Lucas Damian Scarfia (Buenos Aires)
• Jimena Solé (Buenos Aires)
• Plato Tse (Taipei-National Chengchi University)
• Goran Vranešević (Belgrade)
• Bartosz Wójcik (Warsaw–Polish Academy of Sciences)
• Jean Quétier (Tours)

Schedule