Onfray is often regarded as beingleft-wing;[3][4] however, some observers have stated that he hasright-wing tendencies.[5][6][7][8] He has become appreciated by some far-right circles, notably with hissovereignist magazineFront populaire.[9][10]
Born inArgentan to a family ofNorman farmers, Onfray was sent to a weekly Catholic boarding school inGiel from ages 10 to 14.[11] This was a solution many parents in France adopted at the time when they lived far from the village school or had working hours that made it too hard or too expensive to transport their children to and from school daily. The young Onfray, however, did not appreciate his new environment, which he describes as a place of suffering. Onfray went on to graduate with a teaching degree in philosophy. He taught this subject to senior students at a high school that concentrated on technical degrees inCaen between 1983 and 2002. At that time, he and his supporters established theUniversité populaire de Caen, proclaiming its foundation on a free-of-charge basis and on the manifesto written by Onfray in 2004 (La communauté philosophique).
Onfray was a secondary school philosophy teacher for two decades until he resigned in 2002 to establish a tuition-freeUniversité populaire (People's University) at Caen, at which he and several colleagues teach philosophy and other subjects.[12]
"The Université populaire, which is open to all who cannot access the state university system, and on principle does not accept any money from the State—Onfray uses the profits from his books to help finance it—has had enormous success. Based on Onfray's bookLa Communauté philosophique: Manifeste pour l'Université populaire (2004), the original UP now has imitators inPicardy,Arras,Lyon,Narbonne, andLe Mans, with five more in preparation."[12]
"The national public radio network France Culture annually broadcasts his course of lectures to the Université Populaire on philosophical themes."[12]
Onfray is an atheist[12] and author ofTraité d'Athéologie (Atheist Manifesto), which "became the number one best-selling nonfiction book in France for months when it was published in the Spring of 2005 (the word 'athéologie' Onfray borrowed fromGeorges Bataille and dedicated toRaoul Vaneigem who had defended freedom of speech, includingHolocaust denial, inNothing is sacred, everything can be said.[13] The book repeated its popular French success in Italy, where it was published in September 2005 and quickly soared to number one on Italy's bestseller lists."[12]
His bookLe crépuscule d'une idole : L'affabulation freudienne (The Twilight of an Idol: The Freudian Confabulation), published in 2010, has been the subject of considerable controversy in France because of its criticism ofSigmund Freud. He recognises Freud as a philosopher but brings attention to the considerable cost of Freud's treatments and casts doubts on the effectiveness of his methods.[14]
In 2015, Onfray publishedCosmos, the first book of a trilogy. Onfray considers ironically that it constitutes his "very first book".[15]
Onfray has published nine books under a project ofhistory of philosophy calledCounter-History of Philosophy. In each of these books Onfray deals with a particular historical period in Western philosophy. The series of books is composed of the titles:
I.Les Sagesses Antiques (2006) (on western antiquity),
II.Le Christianisme hédoniste (2006) (onChristian hedonism from the Renaissance period),
In an interview, Onfray established his view on the history of philosophy:
There is in fact a multitude of ways to practice philosophy, but out of this multitude, the dominant historiography picks one tradition among others and makes it the truth of philosophy: that is to say theidealist, spiritualist lineage compatible with theJudeo-Christian world view. From that point on, anything that crosses this partial – in both senses of the word – view of things finds itself dismissed. This applies to nearly all non-Western philosophies, Oriental wisdom in particular, but also sensualist, empirical,materialist,nominalist,hedonistic currents and everything that can be put under the heading of "anti-Platonic philosophy". Philosophy that comes down from the heavens is the kind that – from Plato toLevinas by way ofKant and Christianity – needs a world behind the scenes to understand, explain and justify this world. The other line of force rises from the earth because it is satisfied with the given world, which is already so much.[17]
"His mission is to rehabilitate materialist and sensualist thinking and use it to re-examine our relationship to the world. Approaching philosophy as a reflection of each individual's personal experience, Onfray inquires into the capabilities of the body and its senses and calls on us to celebrate them through music, painting, andfine cuisine."[18]
Onfray defines hedonism "as an introspective attitude to life based on taking pleasure yourself and pleasuring others, without harming yourself or anyone else."[19] "Onfray's philosophical project is to define an ethical hedonism, a joyousutilitarianism, and a generalizedaesthetic of sensualmaterialism that explores how to use the brain's and the body's capacities to their fullest extent – while restoring philosophy to a useful role in art, politics, and everyday life and decisions."[12]
Onfray's works "have explored the philosophical resonances and components of (and challenges to) science, painting, gastronomy, sex and sensuality, bioethics, wine, and writing. His most ambitious project is his projected six-volumeCounter-History of Philosophy",[12] three of which have been published. Onfray writes:
In opposition to the ascetic ideal advocated by the dominant school of thought, hedonism suggests identifying the highest good with your own pleasure and that of others; the one must never be indulged at the expense of sacrificing the other. Obtaining this balance – my pleasure at the same time as the pleasure of others – presumes that we approach the subject from different angles – political, ethical, aesthetic, erotic, bioethical, pedagogical, historiographical....[17]
His philosophy aims for "micro-revolutions", or "revolutions of the individual and small groups of like-minded people who live by his hedonistic, libertarian values."[20]
InLa puissance d'exister: Manifeste hédoniste, Onfray claims that the political dimension of hedonism runs fromEpicurus toJohn Stuart Mill toJeremy Bentham andClaude Adrien Helvétius. Political hedonism aims to createthe greatest happiness for the greatest numbers.
Onfray has been involved in promoting the work ofJean Meslier,[12][22] an 18th-century French Catholic priest who was discovered, upon his death, to have written a book-length philosophical essay promoting atheism.[22]
InAtheist Manifesto, Onfray states that among the "incalculable number of contradictions and improbabilities in the body of the text of the synoptic Gospels"[23] two claims are made: crucifixion victims were not laid to rest in tombs, and in any case, Jews were not crucified in this period. The historianJohn Dickson, of Macquarie University, has said thatPhilo of Alexandria, who wrote about the time of Jesus, noted that the Romans sometimes handed the bodies of crucifixion victims over to family members for proper burial. The Roman Jewish historianFlavius Josephus even remarks: "Jews are so careful about funeral rites that even malefactors who have been sentenced to crucifixion are taken down and buried before sunset."[24] Regarding the second claim, Dickson calls this a "clear historical blunder".[25]
In Onfray's latest book,Décadence he argued forChrist myth theory, which is a hypothesis that Jesus was not a historical person. Onfray based this on the fact that, other than in the New Testament, Jesus is barely mentioned in accounts of the period.[26]
In the 2002 election, Onfray endorsed the FrenchRevolutionary Communist League. In 2007 he conducted an interview with the future French PresidentNicolas Sarkozy, who, Onfray declared inPhilosophie Magazine, was an "ideological enemy".[29]
During a Television interview and as a response to a visit by French presidentEmmanuel Macron toAlgeria in August 2022, Onfray described the ruling regime in Algeria as a "mafia" and asserted that France has no responsibility for the impoverished life of the Algerian people in a country rich in gas and oil because the French had left in 1962.[30] During the interview Onfray said "We know very well that this country has hated us since 1962."[31][32]
Several authors criticise Onfray for approximations and historical errors contained in several of his works. That is particularly the case of the historians Guillaume Mazeau,Élisabeth Roudinesco, Jean-Marie Salamito with his essayMonsieur Onfray au pays des mythes as well asIan Birchall.[35][36][37]
^It was prefaced by the far-right politicianRobert Ménard before Bruno Gaccio andDieudonné M'bala M'bala, an anti-Semitic humorist, responded inCan everything be said ?, also edited by Ménard
Onfre u Podgorici: Ciklus predavanja, Centar za građansko obrazovanje, 2013 (Filip Kovacevic)
In French
Dieu avec esprit : réponse à Michel Onfray, P. Rey, 2005 (Irène Fernandez)
L'anti traité d'athéologie : le système Onfray mis à nu, Presses de la Renaissance, 2005 (Matthieu Baumier)
Michel Onfray, la force majeure de l'athéisme, Pleins Feux, 2006 (Alain Jugnon)
Le dieu caché : Michel Onfray éclairé par Blaise Pascal, le Cep, 2006 (Philippe Lauria)
Des-montages : le poujadisme hédoniste de Michel Onfray, I & D Vingt-scènes, 2006 (Harold Bernat)
Anti-Onfray 1 : sur Freud et la psychanalyse, L'Harmattan, 2010 (Emile Jalley)
Anti-Onfray 2 : les réactions au livre de Michel Onfray : débat central, presse, psychanalyse théorique, L'Harmattan, 2010 (Emile Jalley)
Anti-Onfray 3 : Les réactions au livre de Michel Onfray Clinique, psychopathologie, philosophie, lettres, histoire, sciences sociales, politique, réactions de l'étranger, le décret scélérat sur la psychothérapie, L'Harmattan, 2010 (Emile Jalley)
Mais pourquoi tant de haine ?, Seuil, 2010 (Élisabeth Roudinesco)
Un crépuscule pour Onfray : minutes de l'interrogatoire du contempteur de Freud, L'Harmattan, 2011 (Guy Laval)
L'évangile de Michel Onfray ! : ou Comment Onfray peur inspirer les plus ou moins chrétiens ainsi que tous les autres, Golias, 2011 (Thierry Jaillet)
La Gageure, autopsie du traité d'athéologie de monsieur Onfray, Les Éditions du Net, 2012 (Abdellah Erramdani)
Antichrists et philosophes : en défense de Michel Onfray, Obsidiane, 2012 (Alain Jugnon)
Michel Onfray, le principe d'incandescence, Grasset, 2013 (Martine Torrens Frandji)
Michel Onfray : une imposture intellectuelle, les Ed. de l'Epervier, 2013 (Michael Paraire)
Onfray coi maintenant ? : quelques réflexions (tardives) sur et autour du livre Crépuscule d'une idole : affabulations freudiennes, L'Harmattan, 2014 (Michel Santacroce)
La contre-histoire de Michel Onfray, Tatamis, 2014 (Jonathan Sturel)
L'anti traité d'athéologie: le système onfray mis à nu, Presses de la Renaissance, 2014 (Matthieu Baumier)
Réponse à Michel Onfray : et autres textes sur la Résistance, Delga, 2015 (Léon Landini)
Michel Onfray ou L'intuition du monde, Le Passeur éditeur, 2016 (Adeline Baldacchino)
Contre Onfray, Nouvelles éditions Lignes, 2016 (Alain Jugnon)
Monsieur Onfray au pays des mythes : réponses sur Jésus et le christianisme, Salvator, 2017 (Jean-Marie Salamito)
Michel Onfray, la raison du vide, Pierre-Guillaume de Roux, 2017 (Rémi Lélian)
Michel Onfray... le vin mauvais ?, Tonnerre de l'Est éditions, 2017 (Thierry Weber, Olivier Humbrecht)
En finir avec Onfray : du déni de Bataille à la boboïsation ambiante, Champ Vallon, 2018 (Gilles Mayné)
.jpg)
Quotations related toMichel Onfray at Wikiquote
Media related toMichel Onfray at Wikimedia Commons
(in French)
