The Vocation of Man

worked through uncertainty, through doubt, and contradictions? Have I, as soon as something credible presented itself to me, withheld my approval, testing the probable, and testing it again, and refining it, and comparing it—until an inner voice Fichte often speaks of this "inner voice" or "conscience" as the ultimate authority for truth, rather than external logic alone. called out to me, unmistakably and irresistibly: "It is so, and only so, as surely as you live and exist"?

— No, I remember no such state of being. Those instructions instructions: Belehrungen, referring to the doctrines and dogmas taught to him by others rather than discovered himself were brought to me before I desired them; answers were given to me before I had raised the questions. I listened because I could not avoid it; as much remained hanging in my memory as chance allowed; without testing, and without personal interest German: Theilnahme—implies an active, emotional, and intellectual engagement or "participation" in the truth., I let everything remain in its place.

How, then, could I persuade myself that I actually possess knowledge German: Erkenntnisse—the narrator is questioning if his thoughts qualify as true "cognitions" or if they are merely borrowed opinions. concerning this object of reflection? If I only know that, and am convinced only of that, which I have found for myself; — only that