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A school for philosophers

Meet Michel Onfray, the people's philosopher

MATTER OVER MIND Onfray thinks hedonism is all right

"If we include hedonistic philosophy in hospitals the lives of patients suffering from cancer would be much, much better," says Michel Onfray, the 46-year-old French philosopher, who is reworking the world of philosophy inside out.

Does he sound like the good-hearted-thug Munnabhai? Yes. He also sounds like the Charvaka of yore, who wanted to live and die in a vat of ghee. For, Onfray happens to be one of the few philosophers propagating the idea of hedonism, besides such enticing subjects as: libertarian individualism, leftist Nietzscheism, sensualist materialism, jubilatory utilitarianism, pagan subjectivity, post-Christian a-theology.

Speaking at the Hyderabad Central University as a gaggle of students and Francophiles listened and then lost interest, Onfray said: "Philosophy is best practised by people in general and not by philosophers alone. Philosophy is too often a luxury now, but in ancient Greece, carpenters, masons and beggars were the main practitioners. What I am trying to develop is philosophical system where all the subjects can be taught." Onfray has even started Popular University at Caen with an aim to popularise philosophy. Mostly dwelling on his university and its functioning, Onfray was a mild disappointment, considering that he has written 30 books including such enticers as: The art of pleasure, The greedy mind and The splendour of catastrophies.

Looking more like a bohemian designer who has stepped out of SoHo studio rather than an academician out of a classroom, Onfray still dropped gems like:

People should move beyond Foucault, Sartre and Derrida and create modern references.

Philosophy is the only discipline that gives answers to questions raised by the catastrophe of globalisation.

All men are not equal, what we can strive for is equanimity.

If anyone is getting ideas about scholarships and freeships at the Popular University in Caen, Michel Onfray sets the record straight: "We are moving our faculty to a new building, and it requires, 1 million euros."

SERISH NANISETTI

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