© Santiago Napoli, 2023 | DOI:10.1163/9789004532984_012 11 “Still Fichte”: Individual, State, and Democracy in J.D. Perón’s Organized Community Santiago Napoli Abstract J. G. Fichte has a prominent place in J. D. Perón’s philosophical-political text from 1949, La Comunidad Organizada (An Organized Community). The name of the German philosopher appears twice throughout the speech given by the president of Argentina at that time. In both mentions by Perón, Fichte plays a role as a moderator between two opposing philosophical tensions and at the same time contributes to a new conception of community outlined by Perón in the context of the first internationally renowned congress of philosophy organized in Argentina. Perón highlights Fichte’s political thought as a position that promotes the realization of the individual through community. In his closing speech, the president places Fichte’s figure above what he considers two philosophical deviations of his time: selfish individualism, on the one hand, and Hegelian statism—and its Marxist materialistic derivation—on the other. The “third position” proposed by Perón defends a concept of community in which Fichte has a privileged voice. 1 Introduction We are in the city of Mendoza, Argentina on 9 April 1949. That day, the closing conference of the First National Philosophy Congress will take place. We are about to witness an unprecedented event, both for the country and for all of Latin America. The keynote speech will be given by President Lieutenant General Juan Domingo Perón. In the boxes, we observe the attentive eyes of some nationally ranked ministers, internationally renowned philosophers, university deans and rectors, the young Eva Perón, among other well-known personalities. Under all of their watchful eyes, President Perón presents the philosophical guidelines of the project he conceived for the entire nation. During that long exposition we hear the name of a relatively unknown thinker of that time, perhaps completely unknown to most of the public. In his speech, Perón mentions a German philosopher who died more than one hundred and