THE ILLICIT LEAP
Have I ever said anything sarcastic about German Idealism? Well, it's time for a rethink!
Routlege Encyclopedia of Philosopy ( abridged):
Furthermore, FICHTE maintained that there are two and only two possible starting points for the philosophical 'explanation' of experience: namely, the concept of pure selfhood (freedom) and that of pure thinghood (necessity).
The philosophy beginning with the pure 'I' is 'idealism' and that which begins with the thing in itself is 'dogmatism'. Since, according to Fichte, a unified system of philosophy can have one and only one principle, and since there are two and only two possible first principles, then it follows that no 'mixed' system of idealism/dogmatism is possible.
Dogmatism, he argued, could never provide a transcendental deduction of ordinary consciousness, for, in order to accomplish this, it would have to make an illicit leap from the realm of things to the realm of mental ideas.
I wouldn't put it better myself.
