André Comte-Sponville is one of the most widely read and translated French philosophers in the world. He defines himself as a materialist (in the manner of Epicurus), rationalist (in the manner of Spinoza) and humanist (in the manner of Montaigne) but also as a ‘non-dogmatic and faithful atheist’.

A former student of the École Normale Supérieure de la rue d’Ulm, he has a degree in philosophy, a doctorate and an honorary doctorate from the Universities of Mons-Hainaut, Belgium, and Mexico City, Mexico. He was a lecturer at the University of Paris (Panthéon-Sorbonne) for many years and a member of the National Consultative Ethics Committee from 2008 to 2016.

André now devotes his time to writing, teaching and guest lecturing.  He has been Director General of the Institut Diderot since February 2021 and is involved with a number of associations. He is currently an editorial writer for Challenges magazine and regularly appears as a philosophical commentator on French television.

At CEDEP, André is one of the key philosophers of our Management & Philosophie programme.