On the struggle for recognition and intersubjectivity in Fichte and Hegel

This thesis aims at presenting the ideas of Fichte and Hegel along with their differences with regards to the intersubjectivity and struggle for recognition. In the first section, the ideas of Fichte who endeavored to lay the foundations of his own philosophy through criticizing the Kant philosophy are included. Here, on the one hand, Fichte intervenes with the solipsism and dualism problems remaining after the apprehension of subject of modern philosophy, on the other hand, he deals with the problem of dogmatism. Fichte addresses these problems on the ground of intersubjectivity via the relationship of Self with the other, which he determined as a practical principle or action in his own system named Wissenschaftslehre. From this point of view, we explained the ideas of Fichte on the intersubjectivity and recognition (Anerkennung) in the second section. Within the framework of the recognition theory, the other is a transcendental condition of self-consciousness and freedom. The recognition process which occurs through the other's summons (Aufforderung) of the Self is mutual and constitutes a social characteristic based on a relation of right. In the third section, the ideas of Hegel deepening and broadening the concept of recognition that he took over from Fichte were elaborated. Leaving the recognition out of the scope of the laying foundation and transcendental burden in Fichte, Hegel emphasizes the phenomenological aspect of it. Depending on the process of consciousness, self-consciousness and universal self-consciousness, the recognition emerges in two ways as the master-slave dialectic, negatively, and as a Spirit in the content of mutual affirmative recognition. The mutual recognition as the Spirit (Geist) has a characteristic of being plural within the sense that the I is We and intersubjectivity, and forms a basis for an ethical life (Sittlichkeit) as freedom. Keywords: Self, the Other, Intersubjectivity, Recognition, Right, Spirit, Freedom