‘Oldest Programme for a System of German Idealism’ (1796)

Summary

an ethics [Ethik]. Since in the future all of metaphysics will be part of moral theory (Kant, in his two practical postulates, has only given an example of this, and has not exhausted the field), this ethics will be nothing less than a complete system of all ideas or, what come to the same, of all practical postulates. The first idea is, of course, the representation of myself as an absolutely free being. With this free, self-conscious being a whole world comes into existence – out of nothing – the only true and conceivable creation from nothing. – Here I will descend to the realm of physics; the question is this: How must a world be constituted for a moral being? I would like to give wings once again to our physics, which is otherwise sluggish and progresses laboriously via experiments.

This way – if philosophy furnishes the ideas, experience provides the data, we can get that grand physics which I expect will come in future ages. It does not appear that the current physics can satisfy the creative spirit, such as ours is or should be.

From nature I proceed to human works. Before the idea of humanity, I will show, there is no idea of the state, since the state is something mechanical, just as there is no idea of a machine. Only what is an object for freedom, is called an idea.