ABSTRACT
The world of perception, or in other words the world which is revealed to us by our senses and in everyday life, seems at first sight to be the one we know best of all. This temptation is particularly strong in France. It is characteristic not just of French philosophy but also of what is rather loosely termed French cast of mind to hold science and knowledge in such high esteem that all our lived experience of world seems by contrast to be of little value. Far from it: in fact, it is science itself – particularly in its most recent developments – which forces us to ask this question and which encourages us to answer in negative. The mission of science is to undertake an interminable elucidation of the concrete or sensible, from which it follows that the concrete or sensible can no longer be viewed, as in the classical paradigm, as a mere appearance destined to be surpassed.
