548 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



industry among themselves, and every one who does not 

 stand under the same rule and the same power is to be 

 excluded from any part in that intercourse. They 

 would then form an industrial state, and indeed a closed 

 industrial state in the same way as they now form a 

 closed juridical state." 



He begins by distinguishing between the ideal and 

 the real state, meaning by the former that which is 

 constructed upon pure notions of right ; by the latter 

 such a state as is practicable under existing conditions. 

 He also maintains that it is the object of politics and 

 the task of politicians to convert gradually the actual 

 and existing state into the ideal state ; he proceeds tO' 

 narrow down his task to the problem : to decide what 

 rules should govern commercial intercourse in the ideal 

 state, to compare with it the rules or customs in force 

 at present, and to determine how these can be made 

 to give place to the former. He closes the introduction 

 with the remark that — " all good things of which man is 

 destined to partake must be produced by his own art in 

 conformity with science : this is his vocation. Nature 

 provides him with nothing but the possibility to apply 

 Art. In government as well as other-where ; every- 

 thing that can must be brought under clear conceptions ; 

 we must cease to leave anything that can be calculated 

 to blind fate with a hope that this will turn out well." ^ 



It is to be noted that Fichte's speculations were much 

 influenced by those of Eousseau, with whom he shares 

 the opinion that society and the state depend upon a 

 contract. But he also witnessed the extravagances 



^ Loc. cit., p. 398. 



