What is a "realistic" approach to mountains in geography: the example of passive margin mountains[Quelle approche « réaliste » de la l’exemple des bourrelets de marge passive]

The mountain is an essential object of geography but, like other objects, it opposes an approach offering elements of description and explanation based on a realistic, and above all geological representation, to another one more recent taking counts the representations of the populations. For the geography taught but also for the use which is made of it from a legislative point of view in France with the Mountain Law, the realistic approach dominates. The question is to know if this one, which bases a normative approach of the mountain is still valid in the light of the most recent scientific advances. The passive margin mountains, emblematic mountains of physical geography, are used here as an example of a type of mountain. From an in-depth analysis of the scientific literature, two points stand out: the recent genesis of these mountains, like all mountains on the surface of the earth, and the variety of their evolution. Putting geographic science into debate here does not consist in destroying its status in its function of cognitive action, in particular in the service of uses requested by society, but in recognizing the biases and limits of certain knowledges. Key words Realistic perceptions and representations of the mountains; Passive margin mountains; cognitive and normative function of geography. Mountain: which geographical object? A frequent issue in geography, the question of the opposition between representation and reality is not, however, specific to the discipline (Putnam, 1990; Molinier and Guimelli, 2015). John Searle (1998) contrasts the real world, which he calls the physical world, and the world of representation. For Searle, there are facts that make sense only because we believe in them,