A Hedonist Manifesto: The Power to Exist

Michel Onfray

Published by Columbia University Press 2015

A Hedonist Manifesto

The Power to Exist

Michel Onfray
Translated by: Joseph McClellan

In the series Insurrections: Critical Studies in Religion, Politics, and Culture

https://doi.org/10.7312/onfr17126

Overview
Contents

About this book

Michael Onfray passionately defends a radical and constructive politics of the body, demonstrating how philosophy can contribute to a humanistic ethics. He warns of the lure of attachment to the purportedly eternal, immutable truths of idealism, which detracts from the immediacy of the world and our bodily existence. Insisting that philosophy is a practice that operates in a real, material space, Onfray constructs a positive, hedonistic ethics that promotes a joyful approach to our lives in this, our only, world.

The provocative French intellectual promotes a radical body politics that shows us how we must think and act to live well.

Author / Editor information

Michel Onfray is a French philosopher and public intellectual who founded and teaches at the free Popular University of Caen. He has written more than sixty books, many of them best sellers, including Atheist Manifesto: The Case Against Christianity, Judaism, and Islam and the award-winning Sculpting the Self.

Joseph McClellan earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University and has taught Asian and Western philosophy and religion at several universities.

Reviews

A deep and intriguing glimpse into the ethical and political theory of French philosopher Michel Onfray.

Graham Harman, American University in Cairo:
The strength of this book, along with its moving personal style, can be found in its reassertion of philosophy as an art of living and not just written doctrine. Whether or not you agree with Onfray's brand of Enlightenment hedonism, this book will stimulate parts of your mind that may have lain fallow for awhile.

Levi Bryant, Collin College:
A highly original contribution to the literature, A Hedonist Manifesto is a short yet wide-ranging text that attempts to develop a post-Christian, post-Platonist, postidealist ethical framework. I read it with great interest and enjoyment.

Rocco Gangle, Endicott College:
A Hedonist Manifesto is a finely wrought and far-sweeping book by an author who has established himself as a voice of wit and acuity in contemporary debates surrounding atheism and the revival of a general Epicurean/Lucretian sensibility. Michel Onfray's writing is lucid and digestible, while the sense of immediate social and cultural relevance remains paramount. He stands out as uniquely immersed in the project of a constructive hedonist ethical and political program in this highly readable and simply enjoyable work.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Translator’s Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xi
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxxix
PART I. An Alternative Method
1. A Philosophical Side Path Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2. Bodily Reason Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	12
3. A Philosophical Life Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	18
PART II. An Elective Ethics
4. An Atheological Morality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
5. A Rule of Immanent Play Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	37
6. A Hedonist Intersubjectivity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
PART III. Solar Erotics
7. The Ascetic Ideal Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
8. A Libertarian Libido Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	61
9. Carnal Hospitality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
PART IV. A Cynical Aesthetic
10. An Archipelagic Logic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
11. A Psychopathology of Art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
12. A Playful Art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
PART V. A Promethean Bioethics
13. De-Christianized Flesh Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
14. An Art of Artifice Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
15. The Faustian Body Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
PART VI. Libertarian Politics
16. Mapping Poverty Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
17. Hedonist Politics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	126
18. A Practice of Resistance Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Backmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 232

eBook

Published: November 10, 2015
ISBN: 9780231538367