Onfray shows us that the time has come to tell the other story, the counterhistory of philosophy, the one that vindicates the body against the soul, happiness against torment, hedonism against the ascetic ideal, the enjoyment of life instead of preparation for death. The history of a materialist philosophy, which was a powerful trend among the Greeks although it was later silenced by idealism. Manuals, encyclopedias and canonical treatises on philosophy are ideological instruments with which "historiography takes the place of war" to continue imposing its dominant line. But the importance of The Wisdoms of Antiquity lies not only in the convincing defense of this thesis but also includes the demonstration that, in effect, this contradiction has great masters to oppose to the canonical line. And to do this Onfray starts with the ancients, going back to cynics like Aristippus of Cyrene or Diogenes of Sinope, materialists like Democritus and the poet Lucretius, hedonists like Epicurus and Philodemus of Gadara, among many others. Thus, this fascinating book is at the same time an anti and a counterencyclopedia, a brilliant and joyful lesson that shows us the other golden branch of philosophical thought, the one that teaches that pleasure and enjoyment of life do not go against virtue. nor of intelligence. At the end of the 19th century Nietzsche pointed the way; At the beginning of the 21st century, Onfray demonstrates that this is, more than any other, the moment to free oneself from idealism and open oneself to the other tradition, that of hedonism and the body.

«It tries to unravel the hidden threads that mean that in history those most rebellious and most libertarian positions that Michel Onfray unequivocally claims to have been silenced by the right-thinking people» (Iñaki Urdanibia, Gara).

«With Epicurus, Spinoza, Nietzsche and Deleuze, Onfray vindicates a thought that counts on the body as an ally» (Juan Malpartida, ABC).