Michel Onfray
| Michel Onfray | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
1 January 1959 Chambois, Orne, France |
| Alma mater | University of Caen Lower Normandy (PhD) |
| Era | 20th-century philosophy, 21st-century philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School |
Atheism Hedonism Postanarchism |
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Main interests
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Atheism, religion, ethics, Cyrenaic school, hedonism, Epicureanism, pleasure, history of philosophy, materialism, aesthetics, bioethics |
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Notable ideas
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The principle of Gulliver (le principe de Gulliver), existential hapax (hapax existentiel) |
Michel Onfray (French: [miʃɛl ɔ̃fʁɛ]; born 1 January 1959) is a contemporary French writer and philosopher who promotes hedonism, atheism, and anarchism. He is a highly prolific author on philosophy, having written more than 100 books.
He has gained notoriety for writing such works as Traité d'athéologie: Physique de la métaphysique (translated into English as Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam), Politique du rebelle: traité de résistance et d'insoumission, Physiologie de Georges Palante, portrait d'un nietzchéen de gauche, La puissance d'exister and La sculpture de soi for which he won the annual Prix Médicis in 1993.
His philosophy is mainly influenced by such thinkers as Nietzsche, Epicurus, the cynic and cyrenaic schools, French materialism, and individualist anarchism.
Born to a family of Norman farmers, Onfray was abandoned by his parents to a Catholic boarding from age 10 to 14 (his mother had been placed into the same boarding in her own youth). Overcoming these early hardships, Onfray graduated with a PhD in philosophy. He taught this subject to senior students at a technical high school in Caen between 1983 and 2002, before establishing what he and his supporters call the Université populaire de Caen, proclaiming its foundation on a free-of-charge basis and on the manifesto written by Onfray in 2004 (La communauté philosophique).
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