Philosophers often forget to think about what they eat. But the relationship between thought and food is complex. It would be wrong to neglect it.

Would Diogenes have been such an opponent of civilization and its practices without his taste for raw octopus? Would Rousseau have penned an apologia for frugality had his daily diet consisted only of dairy? Didn't Sartre himself, whose nightmares were filled with crabs, pay for his lifelong aversion to shellfish? In this resolutely Nietzschean essay, Michel Onfray has chosen to destow upon cod, wine, andouillette sausage, and even flavored coffee--unlikely paths one and all to the gay science--philosophical dignity. This book is all about catching the moment--and the dish--by surprise, after which the body catches up with the mind and lays down its law.