André Comte-Sponville

André Comte- Sponville ( born March 12, 1952 in Paris ) is a French philosopher. He was until 1998 a professor at the Sorbonne and now works as a freelance writer.

Life

Comte- Sponville studied philosophy at the École normale supérieure and was appointed to the Comité consultatif national d' éthique 2008. He was in Germany mainly known for its commitment to atheism.

Theses

Although Comte- Sponville argues against the existence of God, but finds many poses of faith for the human community are essential ( see: What an atheist believes? ) And thus builds on the tradition of the 1659 anonymously published Theophrastus redivivus.

In encouragement to the untimely life he explains theses of classical philosophy and combines them with current theories. So he grabs the chapter about love on the ideas of Plato's Symposium. From the arguments of Socrates, he developed the idea of ​​Eros as the desire of the lacked. Then he comes over the Philia ( the delightful love of what is there) towards agape. It is shown for him in the Christian symbol of the cross death on idealtypischsten, where he holds the " compassion " of Buddhism for the pragmatic variant. Then he argued with Simone Weil: if God, the "everything" is yet, has approved our existence out of love, then this is only possible if he has retired. The Agape of God, so his complete surrender to us, it abolishes itself and there are also traditions such as Buddhism, which can completely do without a God, according to Comte- Sponville, we too can completely do without a God.

Work (selection)

• Encouragement to the untimely life. A small guide of the virtues and values ​​(2010, first publication 1996), ISBN 3-499-62599-7
• How can an atheist believe? Spirituality without God (2008), ISBN 3-257-06658-9 ( original French edition 2006)
• Can capitalism be moral? (2009), ISBN 978-3257067385