ABSTRACT
The concept of life is abruptly torn from its apparent indetermi-nation when it at once outlines the scope and the aim of an ontology, that is of philosophy itself. If life thus indicates or designates being, the fact of being, then one can no longer confuse life with certain specific phenomena, such as those studied by biology or mysticism—phenomena which, far from being able to define or explain life, necessarily presuppose it as they necessarily do for everything that is. Michel Henry analyzes how modern science, and notably biology, presupposes and manipulates the concept of "life" without rigorously defining it. Henry contends that if "living signifies being," as he outlines above, then "being" should likewise signify life. He furthermore argues that philosophers have shied from or looked askance at the concept of "life," not because life is something vague or dubious. The most accomplished of Henry's novels is Le Fils du roi, which is set in a psychiatric hospital.
