A popular and controversial French philosopher, author of dozens of books and founder of the Université Populaire de Caen, open to everyone. He proposes a philosophy tied to the body, pleasure, and concrete life, against what he sees as the ascetic legacy of Christianity. He rehabilitates forgotten thinkers of a materialist and hedonist tradition.
Core ideas
Pleasure is a good to be cultivated, as long as it harms no one else
Philosophy should start from the body and concrete life, not from abstractions
An open atheism frees morality from religious guilt and prohibitions
The tradition: Contemporary hedonist
Contemporary hedonism revives the old idea that pleasure is the central good of life, with ethics and care for others. Onfray is today its best-known defender.
