André Comte-Sponville (born 12 March 1952) is a French

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

Biography

André Comte-Sponville was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, France. He studied in the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

and earned a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from Panthéon-Sorbonne University, and is aggregated in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He is a proponent of

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

and

materialism Materialism is a form of monism, philosophical monism according to which matter is the fundamental Substance theory, substance in nature, and all things, including mind, mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. Acco ...

, but in a particular form, because of his spiritualistic aim.''The Book of Atheist Spirituality'' reviewed in ''The Guardian'' by Steven Poole 4 October 2008
/ref> The most important aspect of his work is an overcoming of traditional materialistic atheism in a perspective of

post-materialism In sociology, postmaterialism is the transformation of individual values from materialist, physical, and economic to new individual values of autonomy and self-expression. The term was popularized by the political scientist Ronald Inglehart in hi ...

, because he demonstrates a spiritualization of atheism. This is especially present in his essay ', published in 2006.

Bibliography

* ''Traité du désespoir et de la béatitude'' (2 volumes, 1984-1988) * ''Une éducation philosophique'' (1989) * ''L'amour la solitude'' (1992) * '' Petit Traité des Grandes Vertus'' (''A Small Treatise on the Great Virtues'' or ''A Short Treatise on the Great Virtues'') (1995), Translated into English by Catherine Temerson, Vintage, 2003, * ''Valeur et vérité (Etudes cyniques)'' (1995), * ''Impromptus'' (1996) * ''La sagesse des Modernes'', written with Luc Ferry * ''L'être temps'' (1999) * ''Présentation de la philosophie'' (2000) (''The Little Book of Philosophy'') (2005), Translated into English by Frank Wynne, Vintage, 2005, * ''Le bonheur, désespérément'' (2000) * ''Le capitalisme est-il moral?'' (2004) * ''L'esprit de l'athéisme'' (2006) Translated into English as ''The Little Book of Atheist Spirituality'', Bantam (2009) * ''Le miel et l'absinthe : Poésie et philosophie chez Lucrèce'' (2008) * ''Le tragique de la décision médicale : La mort d'un enfant ou la naissance de l'absurde'' with Denis Devictor (2008) * ''Le sexe ni la mort'' (2012), edition Albin Michel.

Audio

* ''"Le bonheur - visions occidentale et chinoise"'', a three CD spoken word audio conference and discussion with Francois Julien, 2007.

References

External links

Brief interview with André Comte-Sponville (video)

Comte-Sponville's website
1952 births Living people Writers from Paris École Normale Supérieure alumni Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University alumni Academic staff of the University of Paris Continental philosophers French materialists French atheists Atheist philosophers French atheism activists 20th-century French philosophers 21st-century French philosophers 21st-century French writers French male non-fiction writers {{france-philosopher-stub