Michel Onfray
b. 1959 · French philosopher and writer, known for materialist hedonism and contemporary atheism
Michel Onfray (born Argentan, 1959) is a French philosopher and writer, author of more than one hundred books, whose work develops a materialist, epicurean, hedonist and atheist worldview. Working within the continental tradition, he presents himself as an «iconoclastic Nietzschean», and draws on Epicurus, the Cynic and Cyrenaic schools and French materialism. His importance lies in grounding philosophy in the body, in pleasure and in earthly life, in contrast to idealist and religious traditions.
He grew up in a modest family in rural Normandy. He is said to have spent several years in a Catholic boarding school as a boy, an experience he later described as painful and which left a mark on his writing. After working at various jobs, he earned a doctorate in philosophy with a thesis on negative thought from Schopenhauer to Spengler. For about two decades he taught philosophy at a vocational school in Caen, until in 2002 he left official teaching to found the Université populaire de Caen, a free and independent institution inspired by Epicurus's garden, dedicated to philosophy open to all. From there he launched further projects, including popular universities of taste and of theatre.
His best-known work, the Atheist Manifesto (Traité d'athéologie, 2005), offers a sharp critique of monotheistic religion and a defence of earthly life, wellbeing and the emancipation of bodies and minds. Through his Counter-History of Philosophy he seeks to recover the sensualist, materialist and hedonist currents that he argues mainstream historiography has sidelined in favour of an idealist, spiritualist lineage. Freud: The Twilight of an Idol (2010) questions the scientific standing of psychoanalysis and provoked a fierce debate in France.
His political views resist easy labels: he is often considered left-wing, though some observers detect right-wing tendencies, and he has won a following in some sovereigntist circles. His influence is seen above all in the commercial success of his books and the public debate they have sparked, rather than in the adherence of an academic school.
Key ideas
- Ethical hedonism: pursuing one's own pleasure and that of others, without harming anyone, as the basis of a good life.
- Materialism: reality is what is here and now, and thought should begin from the body and the senses.
- Atheism: monotheistic religions cannot be defended as sources of meaning or of knowledge about the world.
- Counter-History of Philosophy: an alternative reading of philosophy's past that rehabilitates the materialist and sensualist currents it has marginalised.
- Critique of psychoanalysis: Freud, in Onfray's view, produced a blend of psychology, literature and philosophy rather than a science in the strict sense.
Curiosities
A boarding-school childhood
He is reported to have spent his early adolescence in a religious boarding school, an experience he describes as painful and which recurs in several of his books.
A university without tuition
The Université populaire de Caen charges no tuition, and Onfray is reported to fund part of it from the proceeds of his books.
Teachers and influences
Influenced by
- Friedrich Nietzsche 1844–1900
- Benedictus de Spinoza 1632–1677
- Epicurus 341 BC–269 BC
- Simone Weil 1909–1943
- Raoul Vaneigem 1934–2026
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.