Just sharing my experience for applying PAGIBIG housing loan for House Improvement.
For context: -we already have 1-storey house and would like to renovate, add 2nd floor.
In terms of the process, we followed what is in Pagibig website, but there is just additional requirement that is not specified on their website (which I'll indicate here)
A. We applied online first, Pagibig Housing Loan application. For this step, you only have to prepare:

1. Accomplished Housing loan application with 1x1 photo id (you should already have the total loan amount you wish to loan, TCT no., Tax Dec Reference, etc)
2. TCT copy (Named to me, and the tct of the house to be renovated)
3. Updated (2024) Tax Declaration for land and house
4. Updated (2024) real estate tax for land and house
5. Certificate of Employment and Compensation
6. ID - back-to-back (in my case, I submitted my PHL ID)

When I first submitted my application online they replied after 2 days, saying my application is incomplete (its because I followed their guideline which fields only are required, but it turned out, you have to fill out ALL FIELDS).
So I re-submitted and after 3 or 5 business days, they asked for processing fee which is Php1000. I only followed their instruction on how to pay.
B. After 20 business days, (with 1 follow-up within 15 days after my re-submission), I got an email from them that I can now submit hard copies and all other docs to Pagibig branch.
C. After a month, we are able to submit the requirements (it took us 1 month from the online application bec we prepared the ff:) -1 set of building plan, Specification of scope, Bill of Materials (this is where the total cost of the improvement is indicated and what I put in the desired loan amount) duly signed by licensed Civil engineeArchitect - 2 handwritten copies of the Housing Loan application (note: ensure to get a copy of their latest Housing loan form, version March 2024 I think) with 1x1 photo ID - Notarized Certificate of Employment and Compensation (they did not mention in the guideline that it has to be notarized) - Phtocopies of my ID, PHL ID and I also submitted another ID (Philhealth). With 3 specimen signatures - Copy of TCT, Tax Dec and Real estate Tax receipt - Vicinity map / sketch - Accomplished Health Statement form (this was not in the guideline list, so I am not sure if this is only required depending on your desired loan amount) -Printed a letter authorizing my employer to share information about my employment status (due to data privacy) -Printed copy of my Php1000 processing fee paid online (so you dont have to pay it again) -Pay Php2000 additional processing fee and photocopy the receipt (I paid this in the Pagibig branch)
D. After a week when we submitted the complete requirements to Pagibig branch, we received a call from their engineer and from Pagibig employee of the scheduled site visit.
E. After 20 business days (from when we submitted the complete requirements to Oagibig branch), we received an email that our loan was approved and we have to get the NOA within 5 business days.
We were only approved 68% of our desired loan amount (because the engineer thinks thats should be the amount of our improvement cost).
We were not required to have an equity (for others, they must first cashout certain amount and start the building process, but for us, as long as we submit the additional docs, we can get our 1st cheque).
We are now in the middle of completing the NOA requirements, so I'll update again how it goes.

Hi everyone,
Posting as a student here.
I have been home schooled (online) for the past year and essentially given the power to pick who I wanted for my teachers by my parents. I have been having the weirdest experiences and looking for support or explanations?
Here is a list:
• teachers getting angry at me for not being able to answer a problem and telling me “I never had a tutor” angrily
• booking lessons with me through the agency then not turning up. Pretending they booked the wrong time, telling me what the right time is, again not turning up. I have been there the whole time waiting for them. Don’t offer new times. This specific tutor is only available at 9am on Sundays for an hour and has now told the agency they ‘are not around for the next two weeks’ even though they know my exam is in 3 weeks and we have missed each other for the last 4 weeks. The week after they did not turn up, they turn up, start to test me on a topic as if we are in an exam, then get angry at me for not knowing it perfectly off by heart? They were like “have you read it”, “yes, I have studied this module”, “no, you may have studied it but you do not know it. There is no point unless you know it” then they made us reschedule for the next week now have disappeared? How am I supposed to know to do homework if they don’t let me know in advance? And they are only free on a Sunday at 9am which is a bad time for me because my dad works night shifts. I told them about my dad and they just completely ghosted the message making me feel unimportant to them. Also, the tutor doesn’t have perfect grades of his own, and keeps making reference to ‘boffins’ who get the good marks… and I told him I was in the middle of other exams and he acted completely surprised and disappointed I have other subjects to sit exams for. As if all I am doing with my life is meeting him on a Sunday morning at 9am.
• one private tutor completely forgot who I was. When starting each class, they would tell me to remind them which topic we were on because they could not remember, at one point this teacher got angry at me for politely asking them (with notice) if we could please start 15 minutes later so I could go to the toilet and have some water because I was coming out of a two hour lesson (never said I wouldn’t be fine to finish 15 minutes earlier if they had another lesson), telling me off and saying they are going to charge me for the whole thing rudely when I said I wouldn’t come to the lesson if they were going to treat me badly. This was our first lesson after they basically disappeared because they ‘had migraines’ and then forgot to arrange a lesson for two months, ignoring my texts. I had to call the agency and get them to make them book a lesson (this is all halfway through our module).
• tutor telling me “you want to take a break now” and making me wait in a “break” for 30 minutes, then charging me for those 30 minutes even though I did not need a break? Later found out what he was teaching me was completely awful and way, way too basic - I would have gotten a D if I followed his advice.
• tutor refusing to teach me the topic I asked them to teach (part of the curriculum and a topic they previously said they would be happy to teach - they brought it up not me, so I later asked if they meant that and if so, that I would be interested to cover it soon), but suddenly trying to pressure me to instead pay them for internship ‘application review’ services I did not ask for help with.
All the above happened with lessons scheduled through a tutoring agency. The tutors knew I could raise concerns with the agency, and yet still acted this way. To disclose, I am a straight A student and work hard. I have high standards for my lessons. I depend on these lessons because outside of them, I do not have a great social life. So I am deeply focused on my studies. I am respectful with their time and always accommodate to their preferred time. I am always in lessons on time and switched on, and complete tasks around lessons if they are set. Most often, I have to actively ask for homework to be set (I do not ask for it to be marked, as I know that takes time). If it is marked, I compensate them per hour taken. I feel scammed. I have been waiting for two weeks now anxiously for a message from the tutor in the second bullet, who is supposed to be supporting me as a practice partner for an oral exam I have soon, and is not replying to my polite messages asking if he can please send me what the plan is. What gives?

In the world of electronics and computing, acronyms like IC, ASIC, and VLSI are frequently mentioned, but what do they really mean? If you're diving into the field of electronic engineering or just curious about how your devices are made, understanding these terms is essential. Let's break them down.

Integrated Circuit (IC)

IC stands for Integrated Circuit. An integrated circuit is a set of electronic circuits on a small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. ICs can perform various functions, from simple tasks like amplification to complex tasks like computing. They are the building blocks of modern electronic devices, making it possible to pack a vast amount of functionality into tiny spaces.
Key Points:

• Components: Transistors, resistors, capacitors, and other components.
• Types: Analog ICs (e.g., operational amplifiers), Digital ICs (e.g., microprocessors, memory chips), and Mixed-Signal ICs (combining both analog and digital).
• Applications: Found in almost every electronic device, including smartphones, computers, and home appliances.

Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC)

ASIC stands for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit. An ASIC is a type of IC designed for a particular use, rather than general-purpose use. Unlike standard ICs, which can be used in a variety of applications, ASICs are custom-made for specific tasks. This specificity allows for optimized performance, reduced size, and lower power consumption for the given application.
Key Points:

• Customization: Tailored for a specific application or product.
• Examples: Graphics processing units (GPUs), cryptocurrency mining hardware, and specialized chips in mobile phones.
• Benefits: Efficiency, performance, and lower power consumption due to customization.

Very Large-Scale Integration (VLSI)

VLSI stands for Very Large-Scale Integration. This is a process technology for creating integrated circuits by combining thousands to millions of transistors into a single chip. VLSI design represents the step where designers use sophisticated software tools to create highly complex circuits. This technology is essential for making the powerful microprocessors and memory chips found in today’s electronics.
Key Points:

• Scale: Integrates a very large number of transistors on a single chip.
• Historical Context: Evolved from earlier technologies like SSI (Small-Scale Integration), MSI (Medium-Scale Integration), and LSI (Large-Scale Integration).
• Applications: Central processing units (CPUs), memory modules (RAM, ROM), and system-on-chip (SoC) designs.

How They Interrelate

To put it simply, ICs are the broad category under which both ASICs and VLSI designs fall. ASICs are specialized ICs, designed for particular applications. VLSI refers to the level of complexity and the number of transistors integrated into a single chip.

• ICs are everywhere in electronics.
• ASICs are specialized ICs tailored for specific applications.
• VLSI design involves creating ICs with a very high level of integration.

The Significance in Modern Electronics

These technologies are the backbone of the electronic devices we use daily. From the simplest household appliances to the most complex supercomputers, ICs, ASICs, and VLSI designs play a critical role. They enable the miniaturization of circuits, which allows for more powerful and efficient devices.
For Enthusiasts and Professionals:

• Students: Understanding these concepts is fundamental for anyone pursuing a career in electronics or computer engineering.
• Professionals: Staying updated with advancements in IC, ASIC, and VLSI technologies is crucial for innovation and maintaining competitive advantage in the tech industry.

In conclusion, ICs, ASICs, and VLSI design are central to the development and functionality of modern electronic devices. By mastering these concepts, you gain insight into the incredible complexity and ingenuity behind the technology we often take for granted. Whether you're an aspiring engineer or just a tech enthusiast, appreciating these elements helps you better understand the digital world around you.

As the September intake 2024 admissions approach, prospective students around the world are gearing up for the next phase of their academic journey. Whether you are pursuing an undergraduate, graduate, or major course, understanding timelines and basic requirements is essential to a smooth application process. Read the Complete blog to learn more - https://www.innvictisedutech.com/september-2024-intake-countries-courses-university-admission.phpto

Hello,
I had applied for an Apple Retail Specialist position last year and while I did get an interview. While I honestly felt that I did a good job at the interview, I was not selected. I did request for feedback from the store regarding my interview, but they never got back to me. It's been over 9 months since the rejection. I visited a few Apple stores when I had to get something repaired and I did ask Specialists who work there what is the best way to improve my application and some of them gave me the old "be yourself more in the interview" rhetoric. I did the best I could and updated my resume and cover letter (this time applying for both Specialist and Technical Specialist positions). I have been applying once every month since I got rejected last year, but no response from Apple.
Does Apple reconsider applicants who they interviewed before and rejected? Also, people who went through what I did, can you advice me on how to approach this better? Should I apply differently or what can I do to improve?

since I’ll be applying to transfer I’m kind of hoping i get a scholarship because I seen someone else do it and my gpa is 3.8 and I have multiple EC’s, community service , good writing skills, and bomb professors and non professors to write me a letter of recommendation. What else should I focus on ? My major is information systems I don’t have any good schools in my state for info systems that offers transfer students good aid packages .

Hi everyone,
Not sure if this is the right forum to post. I have been home schooled (online) for the past year and essentially given the power to pick who I wanted for my teachers by my parents. I have been having the weirdest experiences and looking for support or explanations?
Here is a list:
• teachers getting angry at me for not being able to answer a problem and telling me “I never had a tutor” angrily
• booking lessons with me through the agency then not turning up. Pretending they booked the wrong time, telling me what the right time is, again not turning up. I have been there the whole time waiting for them. Don’t offer new times. This specific tutor is only available at 9am on Sundays for an hour and has now told the agency they ‘are not around for the next two weeks’ even though they know my exam is in 3 weeks and we have missed each other for the last 4 weeks. The week after they did not turn up, they turn up, start to test me on a topic as if we are in an exam, then get angry at me for not knowing it perfectly off by heart? They were like “have you read it”, “yes, I have studied this module”, “no, you may have studied it but you do not know it. There is no point unless you know it” then they made us reschedule for the next week now have disappeared? How am I supposed to know to do homework if they don’t let me know in advance? And they are only free on a Sunday at 9am which is a bad time for me because my dad works night shifts. I told them about my dad and they just completely ghosted the message making me feel unimportant to them. Also, the tutor doesn’t have perfect grades of his own, and keeps making reference to ‘boffins’ who get the good marks… and I told him I was in the middle of other exams and he acted completely surprised and disappointed I have other subjects to sit exams for. As if all I am doing with my life is meeting him on a Sunday morning at 9am.
• one private tutor completely forgot who I was. When starting each class, they would tell me to remind them which topic we were on because they could not remember, at one point this teacher got angry at me for politely asking them (with notice) if we could please start 15 minutes later so I could go to the toilet and have some water because I was coming out of a two hour lesson (never said I wouldn’t be fine to finish 15 minutes earlier if they had another lesson), telling me off and saying they are going to charge me for the whole thing rudely when I said I wouldn’t come to the lesson if they were going to treat me badly. This was our first lesson after they basically disappeared because they ‘had migraines’ and then forgot to arrange a lesson for two months, ignoring my texts. I had to call the agency and get them to make them book a lesson (this is all halfway through our module).
• tutor telling me “you want to take a break now” and making me wait in a “break” for 30 minutes, then charging me for those 30 minutes even though I did not need a break? Later found out what he was teaching me was completely awful and way, way too basic - I would have gotten a D if I followed his advice.
• tutor refusing to teach me the topic I asked them to teach, but trying to pressure me to pay them for internship ‘application review’ services I did not ask for help with.
All the above happened with lessons scheduled through a tutoring agency. The tutors knew I would raise these concerns with the agency, and yet still acted this way. To disclose, I am a straight A student and work hard. I have high standards for my lessons. What gives?

Hello everyone,
As the title states, I cannot figure out if optometry is for me… I feel like I’m making things more difficult than it has to be? I hope I can find people who have similar experiences and can give some advice on what I should do. I’ve been on this indecisive journey for a couple years now and it’s starting to affect my mental health. I‘m at a point in my life where I just want a quiet/little life and be happy, but I also don’t want to regret my decision saying no to optometry.
I am 26F and a first-generation student who graduated with a biology degree in 2020. None of my family has pursued a doctor’s degree before, and so I’m kind of navigating through this myself. Ever since graduating I was able to obtain a contact lens technician position for about 2 years now, working at an OD/MD office. While in college I always had an interest in eyes, but decided against going to optometry right away, so I can obtain work experience and become a competitive applicant.
Reasons why I wanted a career in optometry: meaningful purpose to help others with vision, interest in science, good work-life balance, be apart of a community that I can relate to as I wear glasses myself, a good income (I will be grateful getting anything above 100k as I come from a low-income family).
Now that I’ve worked in the field, I’m starting to debate if this is what I want long term because of the patients… It’s almost like a love-hate relationship. I love working with the patients who are kind and grateful, but hate it when I have to deal with entitled/rude patients who’s not happy with everything I say or do. When it comes to difficult patients, it really drains the life out of me. I fumble with my words and my voice/hands shake due to the encounter. My anxiety rises and sometimes it’s those patients who I think about the most about. Sometimes I go home and continue to think about them. It drains me thinking about their follow-up because I worry about another negative encounter.
I try to be understanding of the patients, knowing that maybe they had a bad day, but sometimes I cannot put myself to understand why I have to deal with this kind of behavior as I did nothing wrong and I’m getting the end of the stick. I feel like I’m the most patient/understanding person ever, but I feel like as I continue to do this, I’m not sure how long that will last. Maybe because I’m a “contact lens tech” and not a doctor… maybe I’m the one getting the end of the stick? Does it get any better if I become an optometrist? How am I supposed to follow-up with these types of patients throughout the years knowing they might be disrespectful each time I see them? As a doctor, is this something you get used to over the years?
Then I have other questions that make me doubt myself: What if I can get into optometry school but can’t pass boards, what are my next options? Is a 300k student loan worth it? Should I pursue a different degree that wouldn’t have such an impact on my mental health but still earn the same income? Is the grass greener on the other side?
And I’ve shadowed 3 optometrists before, but I don't feel that “spark” where I know optometry is for me. I am a bit torn because I do enjoy learning about the eyes and a meaning/purpose in a career matters to me, but I feel like this job will drain me out long term because I’m such a people pleaser and introvert. Sometimes I find small talk difficult and it’s hard to connect/relate to patients outside of their eyes. Some days I don’t feel like interacting with strangers and I just don’t have the energy to care about their story outside of their vision. Some days I don’t feel like going above and beyond. Thus, I don’t feel confident that I’ll be a personable/relatable doctor. I’m worried this might affect my bedside manner and I’ll become that awkward doctor and that’s something I definitely don’t want. Am I not fit to be an eye doctor if I have these thoughts?
I feel this pressure to make a decision soon because I don’t want to finish school later than 32y/o and would like to settle and start a family right after school. Optometry/vision is all I know so switching careers completely is difficult. I wouldn’t know what other career paths would be a good fit for me.

We all know that the socialist project was a shit show from start to finish in Venezuela but what happened? It seems to me like the government was constantly being destabilized from without and that they were too hasty to make it socialist without actually putting any of the effort behind building it. I saw a video of a woman who said she was from Venezuela and was complaining to a group of student Marxists about how the government essentially collapsed the economy, but honestly from my perspective it seems like it was mostly just a poor application of theory and wanting to do something they didn't have the economic and productive base for.

Johann Gottlieb Fichte

19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814
J. G. Fichte and a priori Providentialism
Part of a Series on the Philosophy of History
Sunday 19 May 2024 is the 262nd anniversary of the birth of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814), who was born in Rammenau, Saxony, then part of the Holy Roman Empire, on this day in 1762.
Fichte is often remembered in histories of philosophy as an immediate successor to Kant in the German idealist tradition. While still a young man Fichte wrote and anonymously published Attempt at a Critique of All Revelation. This was in 1792 when Fichte was 30 years old. Many believed that Kant had written this work, given Kant’s earlier critiques of pure reason, practical reason, and judgment, so when Kant denied authorship and identified Fichte as the actual author, Fichte experienced the philosophical equivalent of being an overnight sensation.
But Fichte’s life was an unsheltered as Kant’s life was sheltered. He was a born trouble-maker and was willing to touch the third rail of Enlightenment politics by writing and speaking openly about matters of religion, as revealed by his work on revelation. Fichte is sometimes called inflexible and rigid, though we could also say (a little more charitably) that he was principled and not inclined to compromise. Partly as a result of this temperament, Fichte became embroiled in a controversy in German intellectual life remembered as the Atheismusstriet, or Atheism Controversy.
During this controversy Friedrich Jacobi published an open letter against Fichte in which Jacobi coined the term “nihilism” to describe what he took to be Fichte’s position:

“Truly, my dear Fichte, I would not be vexed if you, or anyone else, were to call Chimerism the view I oppose to the Idealism that I chide for Nihilism. I have paraded my not-knowing in all my writings; in my non-knowledge I have prided myself so to be with knowledge, so perfectly and completely, that I am certainly allowed to be contemptuous of the mere doubter.—I have wrestled for truth with zeal and fervour since childhood as few others; as few others have I experienced my powerlessness—and my heart has grown tender for that—yea, very tender, my dear Fichte—and my voice so gentle! Just as I have deep compassion for myself, as human being, so I have it for others. I am patient without effort; but that I am truly patient without effort costs me a lot. The earth will be light above me—it won’t be long.”

Nihilism was to go on to have quite a career as an idea after Jacobi’s letter. While for Jacobi, the nihilism he attributed to Fichte was the inevitable outcome of reason, nihilism did not remain centered on Jacobi’s critique of Kantian philosophy, but came to signify belief in nothing at all.
Fichte’s controversial stance created a problem for the authorities at the University of Jena, where Fichte was employed at the time. Fichte wouldn’t budge, and this was one of the episodes responsible for his reputation for inflexibility, so the University of Jena dismissed him in 1799. At this point, with little to his name and few prospects, Fichte walked from Jena to Berlin—Google Maps says it takes 55 hours to complete this walk—and eventually he became part of the philosophical scene in Berlin.
Fichte attempted, semi-successfully, to support himself with popular books and lectures. For a philosopher coming from a background of Kantian philosophy—the most technical philosophy of its day—this was a bold project, but he gamely attempted to bring his interpretation of Kantianism to the masses. One of the outcomes of this effort was Fichte’s short book The Vocation of Man (1800). Fichte’s academic work was riddled with jargon, but The Vocation of Man is written in plain language and was intended for a popular audience. However, it’s still a demanding philosophical argument. In it, Fichte articulated a conception of human destiny that is universalistic, rationalistic, teleological, and even infinitistic:

“Let us not ask of history if man, on the whole, have yet become purely moral. To a more extended, comprehensive, energetic freedom he has certainly attained; but hitherto it has been an almost necessary result of his position, that this freedom has been applied chiefly to evil purposes. Neither let us ask whether the aesthetic and intellectual culture of the ancient world, concentrated on a few points, may not have excelled in degree that of modern times! It might happen that we should receive a humiliating answer, and that in this respect the human race has not advanced, but rather seemed to retrograde, in its riper years. But let us ask of history at what period the existing culture has been most widely diffused, and distributed among the greatest number of individuals; and we shall doubtless find that from the beginning of history down to our own day, the few light-points of Civilization have spread themselves abroad from their centre, that one individual after another, and one nation after another, has been embraced within their circle, and that this wider outspread of culture is proceeding under our own eyes. And this is the first point to be attained in the endless path on which humanity must advance.”

Notice that Fichte implies a distinction between two kinds of progress: there is progress toward the highest degree of excellence, and here humanity may have backslid, but there is also progress toward broadly distributed high culture, and here Fichte thinks that his time definitely surpassed previous history. Fichte also says that progress, by which he means moral progress, is an endless path, and we have already seen that it is possible for humanity to experience retrograde moral progress, so the pathway to man becoming purely moral, as Fichte sees it, is endless, it can incorporate reversals, and it can be striving to new heights or to wider diffusion.
This and many other passages point to the infinite perfectibility of man, which shows us the extent to which Fichte had imbibed the ideals of the French Revolution—or, we might say, he had imbibed the ideals of the French philosophers who were instrumental in laying the foundations of the French revolution, and were later arguably co-opted by the revolution, as in the case of Condorcet, who wrote this paean to the infinite perfectibility of man while on the run from the revolutionary gendarme. But the infinite perfectibility of man as Fichte imagines it is a teleology with a real history: things can go wrong, we can get sidetracked, we might pursue one form of moral excellence or another, and so on.
And Fichte also transmuted the French concept of the infinite perfectibility of man in the image of German idealism, producing a kind of philosophical spiritualism. Part of this transmutation of ideals came about because of the direction that Fichte saw the French revolution take as it developed. Many philosophers at the time initially supported the ideals of the French Revolution, but came to see it in a different light after the Terror and the Napoleonic Wars. Fichte as well.
Seeking to rally his countrymen after defeats inflicted by Napoleon, Fichte gave a series of public lectures later published as Addresses to the German Nation. This was more than a half century before the unification of Germany as a nation-state. In the twentieth century this work was savaged by George Santayana in his book Egotism in German Philosophy, which I mentioned in my episode on Wars and Rumors of Wars. Santayana called Fichte “an uncompromising puritan” and in Santayana’s fever dream of German expansionism he imagined Fichte as the source of it all:

“…Fichte gives us prophetic glimpses of an idealistic Germany conquering the world. The state does not aim at self-preservation, still less is it concerned to come to the aid of those members of the human family that lag behind the movement of the day. The dominion of unorganised physical force must be abolished by a force obedient to reason and spirit. True life consists in refashioning human relations after a model innate in the mind. The glorious destiny of Germany is to bring forth and establish the world anew. Natural freedom is a disgraceful thing, a mere medley of sensual and intellectual impulses without any principle of order. It is for the Germans to decide whether a providential progress exists by becoming themselves the providence that shall bring progress about, or whether on the contrary every higher thought is folly. If they should fail, history would never blame them, for in that case there would be no more history.”

Many others also have seen Fichte’s work through the lens of the wars of their time, which were the world wars of the twentieth century, rather than through the lens of the wars of Fichte’s time, which were the Napoleonic Wars.
Fichte knew that he was putting his life on the line by publicly speaking out against the French, as he at one time referenced the fate of Johann Philipp Palm. Palm, a book seller, was connected to a pamphlet, Germany in Its Deep Humiliation (Deutschland in seiner tiefsten Erniedrigung), that angered Napoleon. Napoleon ordered his subordinates to try and execute Palm within twenty-four hours. Palm was tried on 26 August 1806 by a French military tribunal, found guilty, and shot within hours of the verdict. Four other book sellers also were tried were not executed. Fichte knew that the same thing could happen to him in publicly speaking out on behalf of the German people. We can see from incidents such as this that Fichte was in the thick of the history of his own time, sometimes riding the wave and sometimes making waves.
Roberta Picardi notes both the derivation and dependence of Fichte’s views from Kant, as well as Fichte’s divergence from Kant:

“Fichte explores the epistemic status and method of history with an aim which is clearly taken from Kant: the purpose of introducing a systematic and scientific method in the infinite field of the empiricism, of which history is a part, together with experimental physics. As we can read in The Characteristics of the Present Age he wants to obtain ‘a sure progress according to rule instead of an uncertain groping in the dark’ from history, i. e., instead of the ‘Herumptappen’ (this is the German word for ‘groping’) that in the second Preface to the Critique of Pure Reason Kant contrasts with the ‘secure path of a science’.”

But the secure path of science isn’t always all that secure, given that there are multiple scientific pathways, and not all pathways lead to the same end. This is the distinction within Fichte’s philosophy of history noted by Angelica Nuzzo:

“Fichte builds his idea of a philosophy of history upon a paradoxical argument. He pushes to the extreme the claim of the bare factual nature of history as a realm of irrational, not-conceptual, and thoroughly contingent reality. Yet he also maintains that philosophical knowledge of history is possible—although neither as deductive, nor conceptual, nor genetic knowledge. Against the fictitious notion of historical Wahrscheinlichkeit (plausibility, probability), Fichte holds on to the notion of ‘historical truth’ and to its ‘logic.’ Despite its radically empirical character, history can be construed a priori.”

Some of the flavor of Fichte’s a priori approach to history can be gained from his primary work on the philosophy of history Characteristics of the Present Age (Der Grundzüge des gegewärtigen Zeitalters, 1806), in which he decomposes history into Five Principal Epochs, based not on historical contingencies, but rather upon human destiny and moral development:

“…we endeavoured to pre-figure the whole Earthly Life of Man by a comprehension of its purpose;— to perceive why our Race had to begin its Existence here, and by this means to describe the whole present Life of humankind:—this is what we wished to do,—it was our first task. There are, according to this view, Five Principal Epochs of Earthly Life, each of which, although taking its rise in the life of the individual, must yet, in order to become an Epoch in the Life of the Race, gradually lay hold of and interpenetrate all Men; and to that end must endure throughout long periods of time, so that the great Whole of Life is spread out into Ages, which sometimes seem to cross, sometimes to run parallel with each other:—1st, The Epoch of the unlimited dominion of Reason as Instinct: —the State of Innocence of the Human Race. 2nd, The Epoch in which Reason as Instinct is changed into an external ruling Authority;—the Age of positive Systems of life and doctrine, which never go back to their ultimate foundations, and hence have no power to convince but on the contrary merely desire to compel, and which demand blind faith and unconditional obedience:—the State of progressive Sin. 3rd, The Epoch of Liberation,—directly from the external ruling Authority—indirectly from the power of Reason as Instinct, and generally from Reason in any form;—the Age of absolute indifference towards all truth, and of entire and unrestrained licentiousness:—the State of completed Sinfulness. 4th, The Epoch of Reason as Knowledge;—the Age in which Truth is looked upon as the highest, and loved before all other things:—the State of progressive Justification. 5th, The Epoch of Reason as Art;—the Age in which Humanity with more sure and unerring hand builds itself up into a fitting image and representative of Reason:—the State of completed Justification and Sanctification. Thus, the whole progress which, upon this view, Humanity makes here below, is only a retrogression to the point on which it stood at first, and has nothing in view save that return to its original condition. But Humanity must make this journey on its own feet; by its own strength it must bring itself back to that state in which it was once before without its own coöperation, and which, for that very purpose, it must first of all leave.”

We can call Fichte’s Five Principal Epochs a “stadial” philosophy of history, since “stadial” refers to stages. In this passage we gain an appreciation of the necessity of the five stages of history as a developmental process that cannot be gotten around: there is no royal road to the end of the history.
In the Second Lecture from Fichte’s Some Lectures Concerning the Scholar’s Vocation, he makes explicit both the a priori developmental history of humanity and the utopian picture of the ultimate end of human development:

“…a very great man has said, life in the state is not one of man’s absolute aims. The state is, instead, only a means for establishing a perfect society, a means which exists only under specific circumstances. Like all those human institutions which are mere means, the state aims at abolishing itself. The goal of all government is to make government superfluous. Though the time has certainly not yet come, nor do I know how many myriads or myriads of myriads of years it may take (here we are not at all concerned with applicability in life, but only with justifying a speculative proposition), there will certainly be a point in the a priori foreordained career of the human species when all civic bonds will become superfluous.”

The editor says in a footnote that the “great man” mentioned was probably an allusion to Kant’s Idea of History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View. We saw in my episode on Kant how Kant saw the teleology of humanity as establishing the perfect civil constitution, though I also speculated that, if we take Kant’s later writings on history in the context of his early pre-critical work on natural history, this Kantian teleology for humanity is nested within a larger cosmological teleology. By my reading, then, Kant is actually the more naturalistic position, while Fichte is the more anthropocentric, and his ideal is a purely spiritual ideal, even an a priori idea. For example, Fichte isn’t in the least interested to even give an estimate of the period of time that will be required for humanity to abolish all government, but he only points out that this is the ultimate end.
Marx also predicted the withering away of the state after communism had been achieved, and Marx, too, emphasized definite stages in human development that would lead to this outcome. With Kant, Fichte, and Marx all predicting the end of formal human governments we might take this prediction as a distinctive feature of a certain class of philosophies of history. Toynbee, too, saw not exactly the end of the state, but the end of universal civilizations, which would cede their place to universal churches, which sounds to me a lot like Kant, Fichte, and Marx anticipating the ultimate abolition of government in a perfect society.
This we can understand as a kind of inverse teleology, in which it is not (or not only) the advent of some future eventuality that is foreseen, but the abolition of some present state-of-affairs in the future as the goal of human development. For Kant, Fichte, Marx, and Toynbee, there is a dual teleological movement, in which some novel state-of-affairs is to unfold, while a present state of affairs is to give way and disappear as the new order comes to replace it. We could call this a stadial philosophy of history, but it is as much a substitutional philosophy of history: one social order is substituted for another; familiar institutions are to be replaced by novel institutions that take their place.
As far as the new institutions are expected to be an improvement over the old, this is also a melioristic philosophy of history. All progressivist philosophies of history are also melioristic, but we can distinguish between gradualistic meliorism, in which iterated reform eventually converges on a perfect society, which could be a finite or an infinitistic process, and stadial meliorism, in which there is a replacement rather than reform of a social order, and this replacement is an improvement.
For a non-stadial, non-teleological philosophy of history, we can turn to Leopold von Ranke, who was critical of Fichte’s five epochs:

“One of the ideas with which philosophy again and again confronts history as an irrefutable claim is that mankind is on an uninterrupted road to progress, in a steady development toward perfection. Fichte, one of the foremost philosophers in this field, assumes five epochs, a world plan as he says – reason ruling through instinct, reason ruling through law, emancipation from the authority of reason, reason as science, and reason as art. If this or a similar scheme were to any extent true, then general history would have to follow the road of progress which the human race followed in the indicated direction from one age to the next. The sole subject matter of history would then be the development of such concepts as they appear and manifest themselves in the world of phenomena. But this is by no means the case. For one thing, the philosophers themselves have extraordinarily varied opinions about the nature and selection of these supposedly ruling ideas. But they very wisely focus only on a few peoples in world history while considering the lives of all the rest as nothing, as a mere supplement. Otherwise it could not be hidden for a moment that from the beginning to this day the peoples of the world have been in the most varied conditions.”

We saw earlier that Fichte by no means argued for an uninterrupted road to progress, but we can set that aside as being of secondary importance. The antagonism between Fichte and Ranke runs deeper. Ranke is often associated with the emergence of historicism, and sometimes he is identified as the source of historicism. Ranke even was willing to express his historicism in theological terms when we said that all ages are equidistant from God. With this view of history as consisting of co-equal periods each with their own integrity it would be difficult, though not impossible, to argue for progress. In Characteristics of the Present Age Fichte rejects the view that an age can be assessed on its own terms:

“Should our view of the Present Age prove to have been a view taken from the standing-point of this Age itself, should the eye which has taken this view have been itself a product of the Age which it has surveyed, then has the Age borne witness to itself and such testimony must be set aside.”

Fichte, then, needs some criterion for his view of the present age other than the present age itself, and he finds it in religion:

“…what has been the nature of this theory, considered in its essential elements, and to what chief department of human thought it has belonged? I answer:—It was a Religious Theory; all our contemplations were Religious contemplations, and our view of things, and the eye which embraced that view, were Religious.”

Fichte goes one better and actually gives a definition of religion in the next paragraph:

“RELIGION consists in regarding and recognising all Earthly Life as a necessary development of the one, original, perfectly good and perfectly blessed Divine Life.”

Both Ranke and Fichte, then, invoke theological sanction for their conception of history, though this conception is starkly different, with Ranke taking each age to be sufficient unto itself, and no less related to the divine than any other age, while Fichte took each age to be dependent upon a larger framework for its meaning. While Ranke the historian insists on the individual uniqueness of each age, while Fichte the philosopher sees each age in relation to the whole of which it is a part. It is the task of Fichte’s Characteristics of the Present Age to provide for his contemporaries this larger framework so that they can understand their place in history, which for Fichte means understanding their place in the moral development of humanity.
Even Fichte’s conception of religion and moral development is strikingly abstract, as we find a little further on in the last chapter of Characteristics of the Present Age: “…Religion is nothing external,—it never clothes itself in any outward manifestation.” And, “…True Religion does not manifest itself outwardly, and does not impel man to any course of external conduct which he would not otherwise have adopted, but that it only completes his true Inward Being and dignity.” This is not necessary an orthodox position, and we’ve already seen how Fichte got himself in trouble with authorities with his views on religion.
It would seem strange to call Fichte’s philosophy of history a providential philosophy of history, as it seems to have little in common with, say, St. Augustine, but by Fichte’s own account, his is a pervasively religious perspective, and his philosophy of history is an account of humanity’s progress toward moral perfection. This progress is a purely inward fulfillment, without any observational consequences, again, by Fichte’s own account. I’ve run into this view in one other thinker, and that is Simone Weil. In my episode on Weil I quoted her criticism of providentialism of a kind that I called vulgar providentialism:

“Divine Providence is not a disturbing influence, an anomaly in the ordering of the world; it is itself the order of the world; or rather it is the regulating principle of this universe. It is eternal Wisdom, unique, spread across the whole universe in a sovereign network of relations.”

I think Fichte would have agreed with this, and with the examples of both Fichte and Weil we can see that there is a place within the conceptual space of philosophy of history for what we could call a pure providential philosophy of history, or, if you like, an a priori providentialism.
Ranke’s criticism of Fichte is predicated upon the necessity of a vulgar providentialism that is reflected in the empirical world. But if, as Fichte said, religion is nothing external, and it does not impel man to any course of external conduct, neither should it impel any course of external conduct on the world. This also resolves the paradoxical argument that Angelica Nuzzo found at the heart of Fichte’s philosophy of history, since the bare factual nature of history can be distinguished from the providentialism that can be construed a priori.

Video Presentation

https://youtu.be/T8eIxZi0LrM
https://www.instagram.com/p/C7LPoSKNdPB/
https://odysee.com/@Geopolicraticus:7/j.-g.-fichte-and-a-priori:6

Podcast Edition

https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/73G2BY64JJb
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/a31b8276-53cd-4723-b6ad-a39c8faa4572/episodes/306a6446-d4d7-4e24-a447-c89fd310d7a2/today-in-philosophy-of-history-j-g-fichte-and-a-priori-providentialism
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-today-in-philosophy-of-his-146507578/episode/j-g-fichte-and-a-priori-177816272/
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I'm doing fine but same cannot be said for my youngest. He did several things that he wasn't supposed to do.
I thought he was fine but I was wrong.
It has been 3 months since I last saw him, he is with his grandma(my mom) in Norway for now.
He beat up kids at school who made fun of him. And those kids ended up in the hospital(is he really that strong or what the fuck?) I scolded him for that, but he just turned around and walked to his room. He was suspended 4 times and I told the school I'll make sure he doesn't do it again.
Another time, after school was over and while he was walking home, a group of college students tripped him on the sidewalk and started laughing at him. He then took out a lighter(don't even know where he got it from) and threw it at one of the students who then got on fire. Police were called and my son was arrested, I had to bail him out myself.
The last time was when he and I got in an argument and I said "Maybe if your dad was here, this wouldn't have happened". He then punched me in the face, choked me, and kicked me. He only stopped when I yelled for my oldest son. He ran to his room and locked his door. I did tell my oldest son about what happened, he was pissed but I told him to leave him. I did get a black eye from the punch he gave me to the face.
here I am wondering if I should let my son come home. I've been crying since I sent him to live with his grandma and I miss having him around, and I feel like I'm the asshole here and it's all my fault. He did apologize to me, and sent me letters apologizing for hurting me like this
I want him to come back home, but I'm afraid he might do these things once he's back, I'm scared he might hurt me again.
PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF SHIT, INTERNET STRANGERS! WHAT DO I DO???!!!

I'm graduating high school this year and I can't help but feel like I messed up these past couple years preparing for university. I've got an A in every single class since middle school, including 2 years of college classes through running start. I feel smart. But I'm just ending up going to a decent university in my state. A school that accepts 2.5 GPAs on the regular.
I didn't study a lot for SATs, I took mine fall of my senior year and got 1220, which isn't bad, but I feel like I could have got much better if things had worked out differently during high school.
I feel like it all went wrong around my senior year. I homeschooled 8th and 9th grade (while covid and online school was happening), and then I went to a charter school that was terrible for 10th grade. I made good friends but it didn't teach me much, especially in math which is where my SAT score later turned out to be low. My Junior and Senior year I went full time to the local community college through running start.
It wasn't until my Junior year that I started having an idea of what I wanted to do in life, and even then it was loosely. It was the summer before my Senior year that I realized I have to start getting serious about this. I decided I wanted to get into West Point, and I thought I had a good chance. Maybe I did, because I also was well on my way to getting my Eagle Scout. However, I was already late to the game. Most people start applying early in their junior year and many are preparing all throughout high school. Having been a team captain and having varsity rings were very important to the application, and I didn't do any high school sports because I was working part time in high school and partly because I just didn't feel like it.
After realizing West Point probably wasn't gonna happen, I decided to try to go to college off an ROTC scholarship and join the military that way. I considered going out of state and applying to a nicer university, but again, I was very late to do my SAT, my scores were not released until after most Ivy League and even just nice schools' applications had closed. Then, stupidly, I was convinced by my friend to enlist in the Marine Corps. Stupid on many levels, including the fact that there is no major war the US is involved in, so I wouldn't be doing shit, this took a good 4 or 5 months before I realized it was a bad idea. By then, applications to universities were mostly closed and good scholarship were long gone.
So now I'm going to the second best school in my state, without any prestige or high ranking or anything, and I have a total of $8,000 in scholarships. Didn't make the deadline for the ROTC scholarship because I was thinking I was going to enlist in the Marine Corps. My family was going through hard times last year and my dad had to cash out his retirement, which meant he had over $150,000 in taxable income. Meaning I got no grant money.
I've come to the realization that I've fucked up. While I should be able to get a lot of scholarships next year, including the ROTC scholarship, I'll have to take out $20,000 plus in student loans this year. My parents can't afford to contribute.
I also feel a little resentful toward my parents because they haven't helped me out one time throughout this whole process. I have 13 siblings and my sister who is about my age had a baby at 16, so they are plenty busy. But I wish I had someone to help me make a plan to get a good SAT score, get into a good school, and get good scholarships. I feel like most people who had a kid who had a 4.0 their whole life (none of my siblings did) would try really hard to help them get into a good school. Its hard not to be mad at myself and my parents and hate myself for throwing away everything I had going for me.
I have to remember that I am still in a better position than a lot of people, I am graduating with my AA degree my senior year in high school and I did get into a decent college, but man, it sucks.

first year student here. so before sem 1 I applied to biomedical science but didn't get into it so instead, I enrolled into health science. I got all the biomedical science courses which I assume is something common to occur for health science students. However as I was completing my application for next year, I rechecked my major and it says I'm in biological science now?? I asked my cousin who takes biological science and their courses are very different to what I am doing. When I go to the "Your Applications" page it says I rejected my health science offer on the 19th of March even though thats around half way through the semester and I never rejected the offer. I'm really confused how my major changed like that. I'm not sure what to do, where to go and who to ask. I remember calling the student hub at the start of the year about something else and they didn't help at all so I'm not sure who to ask for help. If anyone knows how to help I would be very grateful, thank you.

Senior Secondary School Admissions for 2024-25 at The Orbis School, Mundhwa, Pune. The Senior Secondary School at The Orbis School, Pune provides education to the students of class 11 and 12. The Upper Primary School at The Orbis School, Pune provides education to the students of class 11 and 12 At The Orbis School Pune, admission is open to all children without any distinction of gender, caste, creed, colour or religion All completed forms for the middle school must be submitted to the Admission Processing Cell along with all attachments. Incomplete forms are liable to be disregarded Payment of admission fee does not guarantee admission The management reserves the right to refuse admission if it deems fit. The decision of the management is final and binding and no correspondence in this regard shall be entertained At the Orbis School admission (Pune) will only be confirmed on receipt of the complete form and all applicable attachments along with the admission and the quarter's fees
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Had FFELP grad school loans that entered repayment in 2005. Owe about $80K (still)
Decided to consolidate on 4-28-24 to be eligible for forgiveness in 6 years (25 years of payment)
Due to income, my estimated monthly payment on studentaid.gov was around $1000 per month. However, the consolidation application letter I got from Aidvantage says that my payment for standard is around $328 per month. So, I'm confused to what my payment will be. Anybody else have a similar situation?
Also, I don't see anything about forgiveness etc. It would be great to be able to confirm that I am on track for forgiveness and to confirm that my times of forbearance etc count towards the forgiveness 'clock.' I inquired with both Navient and Dept of ed before submitting the consolidation application and neither entity could confirm either of these things.
Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you

Hi guys,
I'm an incoming MSC student (non-EU) and will be arriving in Zurich around late August/early September.
I've started my search for accommodation about a month ago, and have been checking the various sites multiple times a day (the housing office website, WOKO, wg-zimmer, etc). I've submitted over 50 applications, gone to a few Zoom castings, but have had no success so far. Some of them said they ended up going with applicants who were already in Zurich and were able to attend in-person castings.
I know it's still relatively early and there aren't many listings with leases from September onwards, but I've also offered to take over earlier leases from July/August just to secure the room. My budget is 1000CHF.
There were some Reddit threads saying that the housing office does allocate some offers to international MSc students, and some people had gotten WOKO offers after emailing them. I tried my luck last week and the housing office basically replied saying they do not help students with accommodation and I should look at external sites myself. Has anyone else experienced this?
I'm getting a little worried about securing a place because the listings that go up in July/August are going to be really competitive, so I'm wondering if anyone has advice on this.
Any comments/suggestions would be appreciated, thank you!

I need some advice and help. My family and I went for our F4 visa interview at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka on May 19th, 2023. The principal applicant and their spouse got a Questionnaire + 221g, putting our case in administrative processing (AP). It's been almost a year now, and we're still stuck. We've tried everything emailing, calling, and even reaching out to senators, but all we get are the same generic replies saying our case is still under review.
Now, my passport is about to expire in 25 days, and I need a valid one to apply for a student visa. I've emailed the embassy multiple times for instructions, but I keep getting the same copy-paste response.
I've heard of others who renewed their passports while in AP and got stuck for 16 months or more, and their passports were eventually returned. I'm really worried about this happening to me.
What should I do? Has anyone here renewed their passport while their visa was in AP? How did it go? Any tips on speeding up the process or making sure renewing my passport won't mess up my visa application?
Thanks a lot for any advice or help you can offer!

If you get a total and permanent disability (TPD) discharge, you don’t have to repay your federal student loan(s) or complete your TEACH Grant service obligation. As of May 2023, around 492,000 borrowers have gotten loan forgiveness through TPD discharge. And there are multiple ways to qualify!
To get TPD discharge, you must show that you have a disability that severely limits your ability to work, now and in the future. This can be a physical or a mental disability. In most cases, you’ll have to provide specific kinds of proof of your disability.
1 Through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
You are eligible for TPD discharge if the VA awarded you a disability determination because you
have a service-connected disability that is 100% disabling, or are totally disabled based on an individual unemployability rating. We work with the VA to identify people who qualify for TPD discharge, and we’ll send you a letter if you’re eligible.
Go here for more
https://studentaid.gov/articles/3-ways-qualify-total-permanent-disability-discharge/

I received a payment last week a small amount was deducted for an overpayment. Which was my first and only payment. So far no letter from SSA stating I won my case except a letter stating that I gave them permission to check my bank account, in which case I did. So when will I receive my backpay? My SSA online account just has a regular payment due to be paid on 5-30-24 and still saying I’m at 90% complete for initial application.

I ordered a special plate last September and after applying and paying I changed my mind and applied for a different special plate for the same car. I thought it would cancel the first but I was told I’d just get both. I got a letter from the dmv today Reg 18 stating that “there is an incomplete transaction on the vehicle record that must be completed before the license plates may be assigned”. This was in regards to my 2nd plate application. I’m assuming it’s because I have to wait to get the first plate to allow the 2nd to replace it.
My question is what am I supposed to do? Should I wait for the first plate and then fill out the Reg 17 stating what the most current plate it is replacing? Anyone know what to do? I’m worried I’m going to lose my reservation on my second plate and have to wait another 10 months. Thank you.