Meditation of Fichte, Mert Akay, oil on IKEA chipboard, 34x36 cm

On this work, we see Fichte (1762-1814) squinting as if he’s trying to reach something— but what is it, and why?

All of the philosophy of this often-forgotten great thinker is based on one truth we can rely on: ourselves. Fichte constructs his system around the idea of the self. He shows us the path of the philosopher, which leads to the unreachable origin of self-consciousness. For him, all of these tangible things exist for, from, and through consciousness. An object exists because of the subject. Thus, the subject, or "myself," is not just a designer, observer, or creator of other things. It is the first step we must conquer to understand the ontological problem.

But consciousness itself is merely an act. We cannot truly reach the self. If we try to meditate on our own being, the self always slips away. It has no borders; it acts like a ghost (Geist). In this work, I describe Fichte’s impossible mission, which he left for us. Even if we try to grasp it, the self is not a thing or a term, it is simply an act, organized from some materials. It is nothing more than a series of actions.

So, if "myself" is nothing more than a belief, what happens if I call myself not "Mert," but just an idea of "Mert"? Perhaps we should introduce ourselves like this: "This is me. Don’t worry, I’m not a real thing."

"We are the question of being; we are in a world, and we understand... Ontology is our very existence." ('Emmanuel Levinas, En découvrant l'existence avec Husserl et Heidegger)