La mayoría de las veces, cuando un pintor elige tratar un tema filosófico, pinta un texto. Un texto o una frase del texto, un momento de ese texto, una palabra incluso. Como pintar una idea resulta difícil, tiene que pintar un guiño que exprese esa idea en la que se resume todo el pensamiento del filósofo: ese guiño es un detalle, ahora bien el diablo está en el detalle. Lo que hay que ver en una pintura que llamaría filosófica es el detalle que resume esta filosofía.
Para Anaxágoras es un candil, unas verduras para Pitágoras, una jarra para Sócrates y Jantipa, unas lágrimas para Heráclito, una risa para Demócrito, una copa para Sócrates, una lámpara para Diógenes, una caverna para Platón, un cocodrilo para Aristóteles, una lanceta para Séneca, un pan para Marco Aurelio, una concha para Agustín, y esto para permanecer dentro de los límites de la filosofía antigua.
Michel Onfray is a French philosopher. Born to a family of Norman farmers, he graduated with a Ph.D. in philosophy. He taught this subject to senior students at a technical high school in Caen between 1983 and 2002, before establishing what he and his supporters call the Université populaire de Caen, proclaiming its foundation on a free-of-charge basis, and the manifesto written by Onfray in 2004 (La communauté philosophique). However, the title 'Popular University' is misleading, although attractive, as this 'University' provides no services other than the occasional delivery of lectures - there is no register of students, no examination or assessment, and no diplomas. After all, 'ordinary' French University lectures are open to all, free of charge. Nor is the content of the Université populaire de Caen radical in French terms, it is in its way, a throwback to less democratic traditions of learning. Both in his writing and his lecturing, Onfray's approach is hierarchical, and elitist. He prefers to say though that his 'university' is committed to deliver high-level knowledge to the masses, as opposed to the more common approach of vulgarizing philosophic concepts through easy-to-read books such as "Philosophy for Well-being".
Onfray writes obscurely that there is no philosophy without psychoanalysis. Perhaps paradoxically, he proclaims himself as an adamant atheist (something more novel in France than elsewhere - indeed his book, 'Atheist Manifesto', was briefly in the 'bestsellers' list in France) and he considers religion to be indefensible. He instead regards himself as being part of the tradition of individualist anarchism, a tradition that he claims is at work throughout the entire history of philosophy and that he is seeking to revive amidst modern schools of philosophy that he feels are cynical and epicurean. His writings celebrate hedonism, reason and atheism.
He endorsed the French Revolutionary Communist League and its candidate for the French presidency, Olivier Besancenot in the 2002 election, although this is somewhat at odds with the libertarian socialism he advocates in his writings.[citation needed] In 2007, he endorsed José Bové - but eventually voted for Olivier Besancenot - , and conducted an interview with the future French President, who he declared was an 'ideological enemy' Nicolas Sarkozy for Philosophie Magazine.
Onfray himself attributes the birth of a philosophic communities such as the université populaire to the results of the French presidential election, 2002.
Simpatico percorso attraverso la storia della filosofia: a ogni tappa un grande pensatore e un suo ritratto pittorico. Quasi nessuno sfugge al giudizio tagliente e irriverente dell'autore, che nei casi più divertenti (vedi i post-strutturalisti francesi nella parte finale) irride i granduomini scimmiottando il loro stesso linguaggio. Più superficiale l'analisi delle opere pittoriche, cui pure Onfray incautamente si dedica, arrivando ad avvalorare una squalificatissima attribuzione a Leonardo di un mediocre ritratto virile.
La filosofia raccontata attraverso opere d'arte. Un libro bellissimo che si legge con piacere. Dalla filosofia e dall'arte antica arriva fino a quella dei nostri giorni, passando attraverso i secoli della storia dell'occidente.
Este volumen de Michel Onfray nos presenta una amalgama interesante de filosofía y arte, donde se parte del segundo para desarrollar al primero. Los textos que componen el volumen no resultan demasiado originales si uno ya ha leído un poco al filósofo francés, ya que muchos de ellos son casi refritos de textos anteriores, pero el resultado es, de todos modos, válido. Los análisis pictóricos de Onfray don bastante simples, pero como él mismo lo aclara, usa esas obras (y más que las obras, ciertos detalles) como germen, como puntos de partida de las ideas que quiere desarrollar. En ese sentido, entonces, puede perdonársele algunos excesos de simpleza.
Sympathique. L'équilibre pensée/peinture est mieux respecté pour les anciens (jusqu'à Rousseau environ) que pour les modernes, pour lesquels Onfray insiste bien davantage sur leur philosophie. Aristote n'a ainsi droit qu'à trois petites pages alors que Derrida est longuement commenté sur treize.