LET'S STIR UP THE FICHTEAN POT,
A quick rundown of Fichte's early philosophy,
I. The world, in its present condition, is not ideal or rational, but it ought to become so through our striving as moral agents. Although what we now know in our experience is indeed posited by our rational activity, there always remains an extent to which the world is simply given, for we as finite beings do not have the power to create all of our experience. We can, however, diminish the given, and increase the created, content of experience as we approach the ideal of complete independence: total power over nature. We approach this ideal through concrete action, through making nature conform to our purposes.
II. The absolute ego, which posits all reality, is not a constitutive principle but a regulative ideal. It represents the ideal for moral action of the finite ego: absolute independence, complete causality over nature.
III. Knowledge arises from action or practice, not from contemplation or theory. There cannot be any reply to skepticism from a purely contemplative or theoretical standpoint, which only thinks about the world but which does not change it; rather, the problems of skepticism can be resolved only through action, through changing the world and making it conform to the demands of our reason.
IV. We cannot explain the possibility of experience according to theoretical reason but only according to practical reason. The fundamental principle for the deduction of experience is the self-consciousness of our freedom.