Materialist Philosophy of Michel Onfray

Abstract

The article examines the atheological concept of “the most popular French
philosopher” Michel Onfray, as well as his criticism of religion. Onfray borrows
the term “atheology” from G. Bataille, which he understands as a current
of thought that deconstructs theological truths. The philosopher identifies three
original tasks of atheology: the deconstruction of monotheism, the demythologization of Judeo-Christianity and Islam, and the deconstruction of theocracy.
He implements all these three tasks in one way or another. The article demonstrates that Onfray’s concept of atheology does not represent something radically
new or significantly different from the existing tradition of religion critique. Onfray limits himself to the three monotheisms that have the greatest political influence and resolutely condemns almost all aspects of the three religions. We note
that in doing so, Onfray simplifies the image of religion, presenting it exclusively in a negative light. Such negativism brings Onfray closer not only to contemporary new atheists, especially C. Hitchens, who believes that “religion poisons everything”, but also to such representatives of French materialism as
Holbach and La Mettrie. Onfray’s approach seems abstract because it does not
provide a thorough socio-historical explanation of monotheistic religions. It is
shown that his criticism of religion is based on a significant philosophical tradition that goes from Democritus, Lucretius, Epicurus, to Freud, Marx, and Nietzsche, and includes French materialists such as Holbach, La Mettrie, Helvetius.
His hedonism is more likely to be drawn from the Cyrenaics than from Epicurus.
The originality of Onfray’s approach lies in the fact that he incorporates materialism and hedonism into his concept of “philosophy of nature”. Onfray’s positive
agenda, although resonant with a number of contemporary issues, is formulated
in extremely general terms and is poorly worked out.