The return of metaphysics

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to situate the historical and conceptual coordinates of the so-called "return of metaphysics" in twenty-first century philosophy. Firstly, it shows the need to understand the meaning of the attempts to overcome metaphysics in the continental and analytic traditions during the 20th century. Secondly, a terminological clarification is made about the opposition between philosophy and science, a scenario in which both the desire to overcome and the return of metaphysics emerge. Finally, the importance of metaphysical thought in the framework of the new realist philosophies is theorised with the aim of proposing a recovery of the metaphysical motif of philosophy from a perspective that does not oppose science and philosophy, but is capable of responding to the demands of reality and objectivity of a society determined, to a large extent, by the development of science. In this sense, a recovery of metaphysics should be framed within the project of a contextual realism.