 Novalis’s work is neither strictly speaking Kantian nor strictly speaking Fichtean in spirit. On assessing Novalis’s reflections on transcendental idealism, it is important to keep in mind that when he, in 1797, returns to Kant’s thinking, he views it through the lens of Fichte’s philosophy. Furthermore, Fichte’s thinking, for Novalis, did not just consist in the various theses of The Science of Knowledge (Wissenschaftslehre), but also in a certain way of doing philosophy. “Fichtean philosophy is a call to self-activity,” insists Novalis (FS #567). That is, it is a mode of philosophizing rather than a given claim about the absolute freedom of the transcendental ego. In this respect, Fichte’s most important work is not the Wissenschaftslehre, but his lecture on the scholar’s vocation, Über die Bestimmung des Gelehrten, which he supposedly read in Jena in 1794 and which would then be eagerly studied in Jena and Weimar. Even though Novalis had good family connections to Fichte, we do not know for sure whether he had access to the unpublished version of this text. However, Novalis’s emphasis on intellectual responsibility, self-thinking, and autonomy speaks clearly of a responsiveness to this dimension of Fichte’s work. Novalis’s reflections on these issues culminate in his notion of Bildung. This is also the point at which Novalis ceases to present himself as a critical commentator of subjective idealism and produces an independent philosophical contribution of lasting force and value.