Ivan Illich’s radical critique of modern certitudes (2021)

I have read a few, and - at least when I was a more open-minded young adult - thought they were really insightful. I wouldn't say they're 100% on the money, but there are still many moments in life when something I see really resonates with what he wrote. Definitely worth reading and digesting.

Re: Ivan Illich’s radical critique of modern certitudes (2021)

#6

Post by ttoinou » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 10:13 AM UTC

stanislavb wrote: post #2

Has anyone read any of his books? What do you think?

Read 90% of them yeah. It's amazing. If you like the free software movement, Tools for Conviviality is a must read. But my favorite is Deschooling Society

He defines his own terms throughout his bibliography and everything makes so much sense put together (you can apply his logic to the health system, language, knowledge through written books, industrial society, education, gender vs. sex etc.). He didn't tried to make his writing too complex to appear like an advanced intellectual nobody gets, he really tries to make his messages understood, so reading him is also not a pain.

Weirdly, only left wing people read him. But he's actually quite libertarian compatible

Re: Ivan Illich’s radical critique of modern certitudes (2021)

#7

Post by thriftwy » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 10:15 AM UTC

Not to be confused with Ivan Ilyin or with Vladimir Ilyich (Lenin).

Re: Ivan Illich’s radical critique of modern certitudes (2021)

#8

Post by bmj » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 10:17 AM UTC

stanislavb wrote: post #2

Has anyone read any of his books? What do you think?

I've read a handful, and agree that he truly understood the effects of technology and Modernity. It's worth reading the French sociologist/theologian Jacques Ellul, too (they were contemporaries).

Re: Ivan Illich’s radical critique of modern certitudes (2021)

#9

Post by ofrzeta » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 10:18 AM UTC

Somehow I doubt the time has come for "truths so radical that they question[ed] the very foundations of modern certitudes".

Re: Ivan Illich’s radical critique of modern certitudes (2021)

#10

Post by bmj » Mon, Oct 30, 2023, 10:19 AM UTC

ttoinou wrote: post #6

stanislavb wrote: post #2

Has anyone read any of his books? What do you think?

Read 90% of them yeah. It's amazing. If you like the free software movement, Tools for Conviviality is a must read. But my favorite is Deschooling Society He defines his own terms throughout his bibliography and everything makes so much sense put together (you can apply his logic to the health system, language, knowledge through written books, industrial society, education, gender vs. sex etc.). He didn't tried to ma…

>Weirdly, only left wing people read him. But he's actually quite libertarian compatible.

There are quite a few on the Right that read Illich as well. He was, essentially, a communitarian anarchist. Some of his thought is well-received on the Right, particularly his critique of institutionalized education and medicine.