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What does the word “nature” ultimately refer to? History shows that it was born under the sign of mystery and that it never came out of it, but to refer to a protean and “contradictory” reality. The concept is so equivocal and give way so well to ideological drifts that some authors prefer to purely and simply condemn it, at the risk of replacing it by the not less nebulous mythological figure of Gaïa. On the other end, others extend its field of relevance to all that exists, including humanity, and thus renounce to the idea of “ontological separation”: nature would cease to be the “Great Other.” Although antagonistic, these two extreme positions have in common to break with the modern conception opposing nature and culture. Instead of chosing one of these three options, the way suggested here consists in taking up the old thesis of the duality of nature— natura naturans and natured nature—in order to “go beyond” these different contradictions. (The first part of this article has been published in Écologie & Politique , n° 57, 2018, p. 153–180.)