“Der Freiheit ergiebt sich die Wahrheit”: Freedom, Truth, and Image in Fichte’s late Wissenschaftslehre

The inquiry into the nature of truth plays an important role in Fichte's thought, especially following his departure from Jena, and indeed in the WL-1804-ii the doctrine of truth emerges as the centerpiece of the WL. The following paper argues that the conception of truth evolves significantly after the WL-1804-ii, and that, in such texts as the Erlanger Metaphysik, the Spekulation zu Koppenhagen, and the 1812 WL, Fichte, building on the account of the hiatus in the WL-1804-ii while moving away from its notion of absolute truth, seeks to understand truth in terms of freedom, or indeed, as what»yields to freedom«, wherein freedom, through the negativity of the concept, produces an emptiness, a clearing, that is»fulfilled« with truth. Anticipating the phenomenological account of truth yet without abandoning a strong sense of normativity, Fichte’s alethology remains a compelling alternative to contemporary positions.