The Vocation of Man: Large Print

This book is not intended for philosophers by profession, who will find nothing in it that has not been already set forth in other writings of the same author. It ought to be intelligible to all readers who are able generally to understand a book at all. To those who only wish to repeat, in somewhat varied order, certain phrases which they have already learned by rote, and who mistake this business of the memory for understanding, it will probably be found unintelligible.

It ought to attract and animate the reader, and to elevate him above the world of sense, to a transcendental region; -- at least the author is conscious that he has not entered upon his task without such inspiration. Often, indeed, the fire with which we commence an undertaking disappears during the toil of execution; and thus, at the conclusion of a work, we are in danger of doing ourselves injustice upon this point. In short, whether the author has succeeded in attaining his object or not, can only be determined by the effect which the work shall produce on the readers to whom it is addressed, -- and in this the author has no voice.

"Fichte's Vocation of Man covers more ground in less than hundred pages than most Philosophers and Theologians can cover in a thousand. There are three sections in this book: Doubt, Knowledge, and Faith. These three sections would suggest to the uninitiated observer that Fichte's going to lead us out of our sorrow and doubt towards faith. This misconception, along with the work's seemingly masculine title do a great deal to detract the contemporary intellectual. That's unfortunate, because it's really one of the most readable, brief but content-rich books available to the modern philosopher." Amazon reader