ABSTRACT
This chapter provides not only an account of Gassendi’s life and works, but also a reflection on the very concept of philosophical biography. Gassendi’s own activity as a biographer shows that he had a “non-ontological vision” of a philosopher’s life, which he interpreted as a mission rather than as a state. As for Gassendi’s own life, this chapter argues that the post-mortem reconstruction offered by his biographers—Sorbière, Bougerel, Taxil—who depicted him as the epitome of the Christian philosopher, probably so as to defend him from the charge of libertinage, does not do justice to Gassendi the intellectual, but has the merit of yielding a narrative and substantive unity.
