Ivan Illich – författare

"The medical establishment has become a major threat to health." This is the opening statement and basic contention of Ivan Illich's searing social critique. In Limits to Medicine Ivan Illich has enlarged on this theme of disabling social services, schools, and transport, which have become, through over-industrialization, harmful to man. In this radical contribution to social thinking Illich decimates the myth of the magic of the medical profession.

Schools have failed our individual needs, supporting false and misleading notions of 'progress' and development fostered by the belief that ever-increasing production, consumption and profit are proper yardsticks for measuring the quality of human life. Our universities have become recruiting centers for the personnel of the consumer society, certifying citizens for service, while at the same time disposing of those judged unfit for the competitive rat race. In this bold and provocative book, Illich suggest some radical and exciting reforms for the education system.

As a formidable critic of some of society's most cherished institutions, such as compulsory education and organised religion, Ivan Illich has attracted world attention. His commitment to a radical humanism against conventional institutions and esatablished ideas of social virtue make for compelling, and convincing, reading. This book brings together for the first time many of his lectures and articles bearing out Illich's invigorating challanges to the status quo.

Schools have failed our individual needs, supporting false and misleading notions of 'progress' and development fostered by the belief that ever-increasing production, consumption and profit are proper yardsticks for measuring the quality of human life. Our universities have become recruiting centres for the personnel of the consumer society, certifying citizens for service, while at the same time disposing of those judged unfit for the competitive rat race. In this bold and provocative book, Illich suggests some radical and exciting reforms for the education system.

In this fascinating and controversial collection of essays Ivan Illich, Irving K Zola, John McKnight, Jonathan Caplan and Harley Shaiken challenge the power and mystery of professions. Why do we put so much resource into medicine, education and the law with so little apparent result? Why do we hold the professions in awe and allow them to set up what are in effect monopolies? By analyzing these questions and putting forward radical answers, the authors make an invaluable contribution to the public debate on the power of professions.

The break with the past, which has been described by others as the transition to a capitalist mode of production, I describe here as the transition from the aegis of gender to the regime of sex.' Ivan Illich insists that we survey attitudes to male and female in both industrial society and its antecedents in order to recover a lost 'art of living'. 'While under any reign of gender women might be subordinate, under any economic regime they are only second sex... both genders are stripped, and, neutered, the man ends up on top.' He argues that only a truly radical scrutiny of scarcity, with special attention in this study to the sexes and society, past and present, can prevent an intensification of this grim predicament.

A junkie without access to his stash is in a state of crisis. The "energy crisis' that exists intermittently when the flow of fuel from unstable countries is cut off or threatened, is a crisis in the same sense. When such a crisis is perceived in the western sphere, there are normally two solutions proposed: Relieve our dependence on foreign fuels by developing "ecologically friendly' energy extraction technology, or send an army to pacify the fuel-rich region in question. Both of these paths, seemingly at odds with each other, take as fundamentally true a certain proposition, that in no circumstances should we use less energy than we already use. In this conception, all human problems must be solved by the impressment of still more "energy slaves' to meet the expanding demand of human masters. The two solutions consist of securing the current source of the drug, or finding a different, more secure pusher. In this essay, Illich examines the question of whether or not humans need any more energy than is their natural birthright. Along the way he gives a startling analysis of the marginal disutility of tools. After a certain point, that is, more energy gives negative returns. For example, moving around causes loss of time proportional to the amount of energy which is poured into the transport system, so that the speed of the fastest traveller correlates inversely to the equality as well as freedom of the median traveller.

Philosopher and social analyst Ivan Illich, one of the most influential thinkers of second half of this century, directs his attention to waterm the 'stuff' of purity and the creative force of the imagination without which life in unthinkable. He deals with the dual nature of water, as life-giving material substance and as the wellspring of forml, on which are founded the most basic myths and cultural manifestations: water as cleanser, water as domestic necessity and water as a religious and spiritual force.

The medical establishment has become a major threat to health'. So begins Ivan Illich's spirited and reasoned attack upon the mythic prestige of contemporary medicines, examining the customs and rituals conducted by the medical profession. Relentlessly and with full documentation taken from recognized medical sources Illich proves the impotence of medical services to change life expectancy, the insignificance of most clinical care in curing disease, the magnitude of medically inflicted damage to health, and the futility of medical and political counter measures.

In this political essay, Ivan Illich calls for the right to useful unemployment: a positive, constructive, and even optimistic concept dealing with that activity by which people are useful to themselves and others outside the production of commodities for the market.

In five essays, followed by extensive notes and bibliographies, Ivan Illich embarks on a major historical and sociological analysis of modern man's economic existence. He traces and analyzes options which surpass the conventional political 'right-left' and the technological 'soft-hard' alternatives and presents the concept of the 'vernacular' domain: "...to name those acts of competence, lust or concern that we want to defend from measurement by Chicago Boys or Socialist Commissars...the preparation of food and the shaping of language, childbirth and recreation, without implying either a privatized activity akin to the housework of modern women, a hobby or an irrational and primitive procedure." Illich deals provocatively with the controlling uses of language and science and the valuation of women and work. Drawing on unfamiliar historical sources, he lays bare the roots of much of the social ordering which affects industrial man: his own creation, but one which, at the same time, connives at his own oppression.

In ABC... philosopher and cultural analyst Ivan Illich and medieval scholar and literary critic Barry Sanders have produced an original, meticulous and provocative study of the advent, spread and present decline of literacy. They explore he impact of the alphabet on fundamental thought processes and attitudes, on memory, on political groupings and religous and cultural expectations. Their examination of the present erosion of literacy in the new technological languages of 'newspeak' and 'uniquack' and they point out how new attitudes to language are altering our world view; our sense of self and of community.

A work of seminal importance, this book presents Ivan Illich's penetrating analysis of the industrial mode of production which characterises our contemporary world. The conviviality for which noted social philosopher Ivan Illich is arguing is one in which the individual's personal energies are under direct personal control and in which the use of tools is responsibly limited. This book claims out attention for the urgency of its appeal, the stunning clarity of its logic and the overwhelmingly human note that it sounds.

Illich’s theories on the effectiveness of cars, air travel, and energy showed that industrial progress actually hampers the speed and effectiveness we have as people who were born capable of walking to our desired destinations. Roads, airports, stations, traffic jams, all take away the benefits of using complicated engineered methods of travel, and make our actual travel times longer.

Dalmatian-Austrian philosopher, Roman Catholic priest, and radical cultural critic Ivan Illich is best known for polemical writings such as Deschooling Society and Tools for Conviviality which decried Western institutions of the 1970s. This collection brings together Illich’s shorter writings from his early publications through the rise of his remarkable intellectual career, making available works that had fallen into undue obscurity.A fervent critic of Western Catholicism, Illich also addressed contemporary practices in fields from education and medicine to labor and socioeconomic development. At the heart of his work is his opposition to the imperialistic nature of state- and Church-sponsored missionary activities. His deep understanding of Church history, particularly the institutions of the thirteenth century, lent a historian’s perspective to his critique of the Church and other twentieth-century institutions.The Powerless Church and Other Selected Writings, 1955–1985 comprises some of Illich’s most salient and influential short works as well as a foreword by philosopher Giorgio Agamben. Featuring writings that had previously appeared in now-defunct publications, this volume is an indispensable resource for readers of Illich’s longer works and for scholars of philosophy, religion, and cultural critique.

The Loss of the Senses comprises seventeen essays that Ivan Illich (1926-2022) wrote between 1987 and 1998 and continued to edit until the end of his life. This collection is unknown to the English-speaking world.The essays cut across academic disciplines and range over different facets of contemporary life. Included among the many topics are the roots of the service economy, the history of the gaze, the idea of technology as a Western invention, and the co-related eclipse of the university and the text in the twenty-first century.Despite the variety of subjects treated, these essays cohere for two reasons. As Illich’s Deschooling Society and Medical Nemesis did before, they confirm that being immersed in a technological milieu disables our native capacities to learn, heal, and move. Furthermore, they imply that we must deeply historicize the present to rightly understand the nature and effects of present-day socio-technical systems.The Loss of the Senses holds up “the mirror of the past,” in which Illich recognizes the looming figure of the contemporary man without senses. He incisively argues that the techno-scientific cloud that now envelops us withers the realm of our felt experience. For example, our “age of the show” yokes the ubiquitous screen to an eye that can no longer see but, like a camera, can only record what it is shown.Illich also reminds us of the ever-present possibility of “ascetical practices” that can enliven our senses and thwart the dissolution of our embodied sensibilities.

The Loss of the Senses comprises seventeen essays that Ivan Illich (1926-2022) wrote between 1987 and 1998 and continued to edit until the end of his life. This collection is unknown to the English-speaking world.The essays cut across academic disciplines and range over different facets of contemporary life. Included among the many topics are the roots of the service economy, the history of the gaze, the idea of technology as a Western invention, and the co-related eclipse of the university and the text in the twenty-first century.Despite the variety of subjects treated, these essays cohere for two reasons. As Illich’s Deschooling Society and Medical Nemesis did before, they confirm that being immersed in a technological milieu disables our native capacities to learn, heal, and move. Furthermore, they imply that we must deeply historicize the present to rightly understand the nature and effects of present-day socio-technical systems.The Loss of the Senses holds up “the mirror of the past,” in which Illich recognizes the looming figure of the contemporary man without senses. He incisively argues that the techno-scientific cloud that now envelops us withers the realm of our felt experience. For example, our “age of the show” yokes the ubiquitous screen to an eye that can no longer see but, like a camera, can only record what it is shown.Illich also reminds us of the ever-present possibility of “ascetical practices” that can enliven our senses and thwart the dissolution of our embodied sensibilities.

In these pages, Ivan Illich writes against the moral authority of professions, against economic “development” as an unquestioned good, against schooling as the privileged path to learning, against the subjugation of desire to needs, and against ever greater energy use. At first glance, much of this can seem passé. The prestige of the professions has withered; development is no longerdebated but assumed; education has migrated to platforms and certificates; needs have given way to desires; energy expansion is the unquestioned fuel for data centers and planetary competition.It seems the world has moved on.And yet Illich’s critique has not dulled — it has sharpened.The first quarter of the twenty-first century shows that Illich did not misread industrial society. His warning that life without access to commodities and services would become “impossible or criminal” now reads less like provocation than description. Economic development has intensified the compulsory dependence on cash in a world without enough paid jobs — whether in the United States or in Uganda. Desire is no longer suppressed by need, but is the explicit product of algorithmic persuasion, whose raw material is the envious fear of missing out. Professional authority has mutated into legal power. In many Western cities, sleeping in vehicles or building informal shelters invites fines or arrest. Without credentials one cannot cut hair, practice medicine, offer childcare, or drive. Access to work, to health, to money, and even to leisure presumes continuous digital connectivity. Commodity dependence no longer needs to be sold as progress. It is increasingly a legal requirement.These essays expose the deep logic driving the mutilation of human capacities into managed dependencies. What has changed in fifty years is not the pertinence of the argument but the brutality of the system it describes.With characteristic understatement, Illich also gestures toward an ungovernable possibility: engaging debilitating systems by playing with them, by dis-respecting them.If you think Illich is passé, try living without your smart phone for a week.

In these pages, Ivan Illich writes against the moral authority of professions, against economic “development” as an unquestioned good, against schooling as the privileged path to learning, against the subjugation of desire to needs, and against ever greater energy use. At first glance, much of this can seem passé. The prestige of the professions has withered; development is no longerdebated but assumed; education has migrated to platforms and certificates; needs have given way to desires; energy expansion is the unquestioned fuel for data centers and planetary competition.It seems the world has moved on.And yet Illich’s critique has not dulled — it has sharpened.The first quarter of the twenty-first century shows that Illich did not misread industrial society. His warning that life without access to commodities and services would become “impossible or criminal” now reads less like provocation than description. Economic development has intensified the compulsory dependence on cash in a world without enough paid jobs — whether in the United States or in Uganda. Desire is no longer suppressed by need, but is the explicit product of algorithmic persuasion, whose raw material is the envious fear of missing out. Professional authority has mutated into legal power. In many Western cities, sleeping in vehicles or building informal shelters invites fines or arrest. Without credentials one cannot cut hair, practice medicine, offer childcare, or drive. Access to work, to health, to money, and even to leisure presumes continuous digital connectivity. Commodity dependence no longer needs to be sold as progress. It is increasingly a legal requirement.These essays expose the deep logic driving the mutilation of human capacities into managed dependencies. What has changed in fifty years is not the pertinence of the argument but the brutality of the system it describes.With characteristic understatement, Illich also gestures toward an ungovernable possibility: engaging debilitating systems by playing with them, by dis-respecting them.If you think Illich is passé, try living without your smart phone for a week.

Las tesis de Iván Illich, que encierran una profunda crítica a la sociedad industrial - que se mantiene en pie gracias al embrutecimiento de sus miembros y al cinismo de sus dirigentes-, conservan en los inicios del tercer milenio una vigencia indiscutible. En el primer volumen de sus obras reunidas se recogen cinco títulos de este célebre pensador (Alternativas, La sociedad desescolarizada, Energía y equidad, La convivencialidad - con su posfacio, "Desempleo creador"- y Némesis Médica) en los que se pone de manifiesto su crítica a las instituciones productoras de servicios, como las escuelas y los hospitales, que progresivamente alejan a sus clientes de los fines para las que fueron concebidas.

El volumen recupera cuatro espléndidos títulos: El género vernáculo, El trabajo fantasma, H2O y las aguas del olvido y En el espejo del pasado. Es una obra heterogénea que aborda áreas del conocimiento como la historia, la lingüística, la economía, la teología, la filosofía e incluso la bioética. Las reflexiones en torno a Dios, las instituciones, la vida cotidiana, la medicina y la autodeterminación para pensar y decidir por sí mismo abarcan las páginas de este libro. El autor era una especie de filósofo itinerante que en un momento dado decidió borrarse del escenario público para dar paso a un pensamiento de una profundidad y una finura tan deslumbrantes como necesarias para la oscuridad del mundo de hoy.

Las tesis de Iván Illich, que encierran una profunda crítica a la sociedad industrial - que se mantiene en pie gracias al embrutecimiento de sus miembros y al cinismo de sus dirigentes-, conservan en los inicios del tercer milenio una vigencia indiscutible. En el primer volumen de sus obras reunidas se recogen cinco títulos de este célebre pensador (Alternativas, La sociedad desescolarizada, Energía y equidad, La convivencialidad - con su posfacio, "Desempleo creador"- y Némesis Médica) en los que se pone de manifiesto su crítica a las instituciones productoras de servicios, como las escuelas y los hospitales, que progresivamente alejan a sus clientes de los fines para las que fueron concebidas.

El volumen recupera cuatro espléndidos títulos: El género vernáculo, El trabajo fantasma, H2O y las aguas del olvido y En el espejo del pasado. Es una obra heterogénea que aborda áreas del conocimiento como la historia, la lingüística, la economía, la teología, la filosofía e incluso la bioética. Las reflexiones en torno a Dios, las instituciones, la vida cotidiana, la medicina y la autodeterminación para pensar y decidir por sí mismo abarcan las páginas de este libro. El autor era una especie de filósofo itinerante que en un momento dado decidió borrarse del escenario público para dar paso a un pensamiento de una profundidad y una finura tan deslumbrantes como necesarias para la oscuridad del mundo de hoy.

Los artículos reunidos por Iván Illich en Alternativas ponen en cuestión la naturaleza de certidumbres particulares, reflejadas en tradiciones, valores, grupos o instituciones. Todos están guiados por un objetivo común que, inevitablemente, generó interés y polémica tras su aparición: "Confío en que cada una de mis afirmaciones —airada o apasionada, diestra o inocente— provoque también una sonrisa y, con ella, una nueva libertad, aunque sea una libertad que tuvo su precio". Así Illich encara la frivolidad de las políticas que pretenden combatir la pobreza a través de la idea de progreso, la superficialidad de las reformas del clero católico, los mecanismos de obediencia que reproduce el sistema escolar o las consecuencias humanas y naturales del desarrollo económico. Producto de un lúcido entendimiento particular, el conjunto de ideas aquí expuestas nos recuerda que la crisis institucional contemporánea reclama una actitud crítica radical ante las certezas impuestas.