The Vision of Being in Fichte’s Doctrine of Science 1804-II

Abstract

The Doctrine of the Sciences 1804-II represents a magisterial exposition of Fichte’s transcendental ontology, as an ontology elaborated epistemologically through the genetic self-comprehension of knowledge (being-conscious). The ontological affirmation is advanced through moments of a reflection that verifies itself in its own development and progressively abandons inadequate determinations of the principle. Three principal meanings of being are explained: being as esse in mero actu, being as existence and objective being. The fundamental sense of being is being as esse in mero actu, actus essendi, singulum of being and of life, living light.