Philosopher
François Rabelais
Overview
François Rabelais (UK: , US: ; French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʁablɛ]; born between 1483 and 1494; died 1553) was a French writer who has been called the first great French prose author. A humanist of the French Renaissance and Greek scholar, he attracted opposition from both Protestant theologian John Calvin and from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Though in his day he was best known as a physician, scholar, diplomat, and Catholic priest, later he became better known as a satirist for his depictions of the grotesque, and for his larger-than-life characters.
Living in the religious and political turmoil of the Reformation, Rabelais treated the great questions of his time in his novels. Rabelais admired Erasmus and like him is considered a Christian humanist. He was critical of medieval scholasticism and lampooned the abuses of powerful princes and popes.
Rabelais is widely known for the first two volumes relating the childhoods of the giants Gargantua and Pantagruel written in the style of bildungsroman; his later works—the Third Book (which prefigures the philosophical novel) and the Fourth Book are considerably more erudite in tone. His literary legacy gave rise to the word Rabelaisian, an adjective meaning "marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism."
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Philosophers who discussed François Rabelais
- Epicurus
- Epictetus
- Heraclitus
- Lucian
- Gargantua and Pantagruel
- John Cowper Powys
- Renaissance
- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
- Mikhail Bakhtin
- Hilary Putnam
- John Major (philosopher)
Ideas François Rabelais discusses
- Erasmus
- Christian humanism
- George Orwell
- Galen
- Gospel of Luke
- Annales school
- Hippocrates
- Neologism
- James Joyce
- Jonathan Swift
- John Calvin
- Lucian
- Laurence Sterne
- Miguel de Cervantes
- Gargantua and Pantagruel
- Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
- Heresy
- John Cowper Powys
- Paris
- Nobel Prize in Literature
- Psychoanalysis
- Pope Clement VII
- Symposium (Plato)
- Post-structuralism
Place in the tradition
Part of Atheism.