Contrasts between hedonism and superstition in Epicurus and Onfray

Abstract

Are remarkables the convergences between the hedonism of Epicurus (341 b.C – 270 b.C) and of Michel Onfray (1959-? ). Through a constant opposition against superstitions that afflicted and that still afflict humanity, both philosophers elaborated doctrines that conceive the enjoyment of pleasures as the royal way to happiness.  Fighting superstitions that affirm the existence of intervening gods or of the soul as an immaterial element that survives the death of the body, both denounce the illusions that come from ignorance, that release man from the use of his reason and that are the cause of sad affections such as fear and blame.  In the face of these superstitions, their causes and their depotentiating effects on human life, both Epicurus (2002; 2005) and Onfray (2008; 2010; 2014) developed hedonistic philosophies, which constitute ways of life based by reason, for the search of pleasure and for overcoming the anguish and suffering created by illusion.