This article sets out the positions held on cloning by the contemporary French Spinozist philosopher and biophysicist, Henri Atlan, described in the different records of Atlan's "scientific and mythical rationales", which are categories that structure the thinking of this author, crossing boundaries between the natural, human and social sciences and ethics. Having set out the actual possibility of cloning taking place, if from the first perspective one can initially foretell applications that will foster human health and welfare, it is from the second that ambivalent and often alarming symbolic interpretations may arise. Not only does Atlan expose the mythical origins of these mistaken ideas, but, in line with his non-dichotomical and Spinozist lineage, he takes a stance in favor of scientific progress, which is paralleled by an expanded human propensity to comprehend more broadly their "origins and destiny".
cloning; science; myth; philosophy and biology; quality of life