This paper offers a critical examination of two of the most representative figures of current new or speculative realism, namely Meillassoux and Brassier. The main thesis of this paper is that new realism’s criticism of modern philosophy is based on a misreading of this philosophy. The paper is divided in three parts. In the first one, the central claims of new realism are presented and verified by comparing them with the philosophies of Kant and Fichte. As a result, it is shown that only a selective reading and a biased interpretation of both German philosophers can support the main claims of speculative realism. The second part focuses exclusively on Fichte’s philosophy. The main argument here is that Fichte’s philosophy offers conceptual and methodological tools for solving the main problems of speculative realism. The third part presents the conclusions of the comparative analysis carried out in the first two parts. It is argued that speculative realism’s criticism of modern philosophy and specially Kant and Fichte remains far away of the radical character of the main ideas of the Wissenschaftslehre.