Commentary on Fichte's “The Illegality of the Unauthorised ... - uoltj

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170 university of ottawa law & technology journal www.uoltj.ca Fichte is more successful in addressing a major lacuna in the Lockean labour-based view of property. His epistemological view about the creation of ideas, outlined in the work on the reprinting of books and further elaborated in later philosophical works, is able to explain how it is that our intellectual work is a unique expression of our personality. He thus addresses one of the major concerns with the Lockean view, namely, that it is hard to see what unique, personal element labour adds to things that entails a property interest in them. For Fichte, the form of our thoughts is the unique element that cannot be produced by another except through copying. Thus, despite its flaws and incomplete arguments, Fichte’s essay on the illegality of the reproduction of books, in addition to its entertaining prose and amusing parable, provides some insights into the concerns that motivated natural rights theorists in the late eighteenth century.
(2008) 5:1&2 UOLTJ 141 <strong>Commentary</strong> on Fichte 171 TRANSLATION OF BEWEIS DER UNRECHTMÄSSIGKEIT DES BÜCHERNACHDRUCKS: EIN RÄSONNEMENT UND EINE PARABEL. 1 By J.G. Fichte The essay originally appeared in the Berlinische Monatsschrift, Vol. 21, No. 1 (1793), pp. 443-483. Beweis der Unrechtmäßigkeit des Büchernachdrucks: Ein Räsonnement und eine Parabel Proof of the Illegality of the Unauthorised Reprinting of Books: An Argument and a 2 Parable. 1. Wer schlechte Gründe verdrängt, macht bessern Platz. So urtheilte unlängst ein durch seinen Rang, und mehr noch durch seine Gerechtigkeit, ehrwürdiges Gericht; und so dachte der Verfasser des Aufsatzes: "Der Bücherverlag in Betrachtung der Schriftsteller, der Verleger, und des Publikums, nochmals erwogen" im Deutschen Magazin, April 1791. Die Unrechtmäßigkeit des Büchernachdrucks schien nehmlich Hrn. Reimarus durch die bis jetzt angeführten Gründe noch nicht erwiesen; und er wollte durch eine scheinbare Vertheidigung desselben die Gelehrten auffordern, auf bessere gegen denselben zu denken. Denn unmöglich konnte es ihm dabei Ernst sein; unmöglich konnte er wollen, daß die Vertheidigung eines Verfahrens sich behaupte, gegen welches jeder Wohldenkende einen innern Abscheu fühlt. 2. Seine Abhandlung theilt sich, der Natur der Sache gemäß, in die zwei Fragen: über die Rechtmässigkeit, und über die Nützlichkeit des Büchernachdrucks. In Absicht der erstern, behauptet er: daß bis jetzt noch kein, 1. [223] He who displaces bad reasons makes room for better ones. Thus has a venerable court, respected for its rank, and even more for its justice, recently judged. And so thought the author of the essay “The Publishing House Considered Once More in Relation to Writers, Publishers, and the Public” (“Der Bücherverlag in Betrachtung der Schriftsteller, der Verleger und des Publicums, nochmals erwogen”), published in the Deutsches Magazin, April 1791. The illegality of reprinting books seems not yet to have been proven for Herr Reimarus by the reasons provided until now, and he wanted, through his apparent defence of the practice, to invite scholars to think of better reasons against it. For he could not possibly have been in earnest. He could not have wanted that a practice be defended against which every thoughtful person has an inner revulsion. 2. In accordance with the nature of the matter, his treatise is divided into two questions: [the first] about legality, and [the second] about the usefulness of [the unauthorised] reprinting of books. With regards to the first question, he observes 1. Other translations include Emmanuel Kant, Qu'est-ce qu'un livre ? Textes de Kant et de Fichte, Jocelyn Benoist (trans.) (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1995) and JG Fichte, “Proof of the Illegality of Reprinting: A Rationale and a Parable,” Martha Woodmansee (trans.), . 2. I would like to thank Hartwig Mayer, who reviewed my original English translation of Fichte’s text and produced his own independent translation to aid me in revising mine. Numbers in the English translation refer to pages in the German standard edition of Fichte's works, Immanuel Hermann Fichte (ed.), Fichtes Werke, vol. 3 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1971), at pp. 223-244.
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Commentary on Fichte's “The Illegality of the Unauthorised ... - uoltj

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