Is the Experience of the Infinite Possible?

Essay on the Notion of Metaphysical Experience in Marcel Conche

Abstract

Marcel Conche’s metaphysics of Nature is rooted in what he calls “the metaphysical experience of the infinity of Nature.” However, at least two important objections can be raised against such an experience, and were indeed addressed to Conche recently: firstly, one may ask if the very idea of an experience of the Infinite is not a contradiction in terms; secondly, even if one grants that there is indeed something like an experience of immersion within the Whole (the “oceanic feeling” of R. Rolland), one may still doubt that such an experience holds any metaphysical significance. The object of this article is to elucidate and defend Conche’s conception of metaphysical experience, in response to these objections. Far from being impossible, it will be shown that this experience is constitutive of human existence as such.