Abstract
Metaphysics had been proclaimed archaic or outdated. In fact, it is never "dead". In fact, it is undergoing a considerable international revival, the extent of which is still far from being fully appreciated in France. Because it asks, in the most general and at the same time most precise way, "what there is", it is essential to any enterprise of knowledge, understood not as the recognition of eternal truths, but as an inquiry into the world and reality.
At the opposite end of the spectrum from obscurantist spiritualism and postmodern relativism, Claudine Tiercelin sets out here the program of a scientific and realistic metaphysics, rooted in the rationalist tradition.