Régis Jolivet

Does God exist? And, if he exists, what is his nature? At the root of all man's restlessness and all his philosophical speculation there is only one problem, namely, the problem of God. This is surely the question of questions, to which all others lead and from which it is impossible to escape. Man's whole life is determined by this question. The meaning we find in human existence must depend entirely upon the solution we give to the problem of th existence and nature of God. Philosophers have always debated the proofs or lack of proofs for the existence of God and the grounds for right conduct, with or without supernatural sanctions. The author has set forth in the pages of this volume a history of these debates from pre-Christian times to the modern period, together with a consideration of the Christian standpoint as it appears today.

Metaphysics, according to the author, is the science of being, the science of the real-in-itself, the science of the absolute. It has as its objective the definition of the causes and absolute first principles of the universe. This book covers the main problems of the science of being from the beginnings of knowledge in sense perception to the philosophical study of the existence of God himself. Along the way, the author clearly and concisely treats the problems of what we can know and how we know, the relationship between metaphysics and the other sciences and between metaphysics and morality.