Ivan Illich
Ivan Illich: A Life of Critique and Vision
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Full Name and Common Aliases
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Ivan Illich was born as Johann Joseph Ignatius Antonius Iilich on 19 September 1926 in Vienna, Austria. He is commonly known by his adopted surname, Illich.
Birth and Death Dates
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Illich was born on 19 September 1926 and passed away on 2 February 2002 at the age of 75.
Nationality and Profession(s)
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Illich held Austrian nationality but spent much of his life in the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked as an anarchist philosopher, theologian, educator, medical critic, and social critic.
Early Life and Background
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Born into a family of Slovene descent, Illich grew up with a strong sense of Catholicism. His father was a diplomat and his mother a philanthropist. Illich's early life was marked by privilege, but also by the influence of Catholicism, which would later shape his critique of modern society.
Major Accomplishments
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Illich's work is characterized by its critique of modernity and its emphasis on alternative forms of living. Some of his major accomplishments include:
Deschooling Society: Illich argued that traditional education systems are designed to create conformist citizens, rather than free-thinking individuals.
Medical Nemesis: In this book, Illich critiques the medical establishment for creating more problems than it solves.
The Convivial Society: This work explores the idea of a society based on reciprocity and cooperation, rather than competition and consumption.Notable Works or Actions
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Illich's notable works include:
_Deschooling Society_ (1971)
_Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health_ (1974)
_The Convivial Society_ (1973)
He also founded the Center for Intercultural Documentation in 1961, which aimed to promote understanding between different cultures.
Impact and Legacy
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Illich's work has had a significant impact on various fields, including education, medicine, and philosophy. His critique of modern society has influenced thinkers such as Paulo Freire and John Holt. Illich's emphasis on alternative forms of living continues to inspire movements like the homeschooling movement and the slow food movement.
Why They Are Widely Quoted or Remembered
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Illich is widely quoted for his provocative statements about modern society, which challenged conventional wisdom and forced readers to question their assumptions. His critique of industrialized education and healthcare systems continues to resonate with people today, as they seek more authentic and meaningful ways of living.
In conclusion, Ivan Illich's life was marked by a commitment to critiquing the dominant narratives of his time. His work continues to inspire new generations of thinkers and activists who seek to create a more just and convivial society.
Quotes by Ivan Illich
Ivan Illich's insights on:
The idea of Homo monolinguis - one-languaged man - the idea of children having to grow into one system before we confuse them with another mental system, is an idea with which, unfortunately, many people are brought up now.
The college and university systems, at least, have become like television. There's a bit of this and a bit of that and some compulsory program with its components connected in a way that only a planner could understand.
Up to now, economic development has always meant that people, instead of doing something, are enabled to buy it... Economic development has also meant that, after a time, people must buy the commodity because the conditions under which they could get along without it had disappeared from their physical, social, or cultural environment.
Huge institutions producing costly services dominate the horizons of our inventiveness.
Schools that are freely accessible allow the organization of certain specific learning tasks which a person might propose to himself. Schools, when they are compulsory - as we see at this moment in the United States - create a dazed population, a 'learned' population, a mentally pretentious population, such as we have never seen before.
Most people, throughout history, haven't learned one language to the exclusion of another. You learn to speak differently to a peasant and to a shoemaker. You speak differently to your mother, who comes from Burgundy, and to your father, who comes from Swabia.
Once the Third World has become a mass market for the goods, products, and processes which are designed by the rich for themselves, the discrepancy between demand for these Western artifacts and the supply will increase indefinitely.
I didn't want to go into the papal bureaucracy, so I thought of doing a postdoctoral thesis, which they call a 'Habilitation' in German universities, on alchemy in the work of Albert the Great.
By the early seventeenth century, a new consensus began to arise: the idea that man was born incompetent for society and remained so unless he was provided with 'education.'