The Battle over Metaphysics: On Catholics, Postmodernity, and the Futility of Debating a Non-Problem

Metaphysics is championed among contemporary philosophers as the way to combat the nihilism of our age and is simultaneously rejected as nihilism’s source. Thinkers who are serious about the Catholic tradition stand on either side of this argument. Who is in the right? In this paper, I explain that this is a false debate, as it rests on equivocation. I first clarify the meaning of “metaphysics” in Heidegger’s later philosophy and then discuss how this thesis was received in France: some refined the historical dimensions of the rejection of “metaphysics” and sought ways beyond it, while others returned to “metaphysics” in a new way. It is evident that these positions are not in direct opposition, since each uses “metaphysics” differently. If the equivocation of this term distracts our attention from pursuing the source of real disagreements, would it not be better to avoid it? Perhaps. And yet many philosophers and theologians remain deeply attached to this word. I thus close by reflecting on the strategic assumptions about history, words, truth, and context that underlie our choice of how to take it up.