Let’s call metaphysics the philosophical confidence in the capacity of concepts to grasp the essence of reality. Metaphysics is a faith in the content and structure of concepts. Metaphysics ends with the change of attention in concepts from their content to their use. What does a concept do? How do they work? Metaphysics returns, however, for praxis occupies the old place that contemplation occupied. The subject displaces the “real”. This is the second end of metaphysics: the deconstruction of both the objective (present in the categories) and the subjective content (the practical dimension, will, desire). Metaphysics returns, however, in the form of self-destruction and self-deprecation. It is acknowledged that metaphysics can be neither embraced nor destroyed. But the real problem for us lies elsewhere. Not in the content, not in the use, but in our expectations about concepts. The weight of concepts lies more in the confidence we have in them than in the content. We can borrow an idea of Indian philosophy: what we exhibit time and again is profound attachment to our concepts.
Arturo Romero Contreras Profesor Investigador en Filosofía BUAP/ Professor Researcher in Philosophy BUAP, Mexico