WATCH AS VIDEO In previous installments, inspired by the thought of the great cultural critic Ivan Illich, we considered what human freedom means and discussed the importance of maximizing for human agency. We also looked at, among other things, Ivan Illich’s critique of the modern education and health systems. I wanted to end our…
Watch As Video While the work of Ivan Illich offers remarkable and counterintuitive insights into a variety of aspects of the modern world, he is best known as a critic of both the modern educational system and the modern health system. In one of his most influential works, Limits to Medicine: Medical Nemesis, The Expropriation…
Watch As Video The quotes from Ivan Illich that we have looked at thus far might suggest that he was a pessimistic and unhappy person. The truth, however, is that Illich does more than simply offer a critique, he also provides a vision and a path forward, as the title of his seminal work, Tools…
I have referred to the concept of human flourishing a lot recently, and I’m sure that I will continue to do so. In today’s quote from Ivan Illich, he addresses two often unconsidered side effects of modern consumer society: “In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and…
Watch As Video Ivan Illich’s second significant, and perhaps most influential, work was Tools For Conviviality, which was published two years after Deschooling Society. In this work, Illich expands his critique of modern institutions, of the dominant role played by technocratic elites in industrial society, of the institutionalization of specialized knowledge, and ultimately argues for…
Ivan Illich’s first influential work was Deschooling Society, which he published in 1971. In this work, among other things, Illich argued that the institutionalization fostered by the educational system has led to the general institutionalization of society, and that if we could de-institutionalize education, that this would help to de-institutionalize society. The first quote we’re…
Having looked at some of Hannah Arendt’s seminal ideas, I’ve decided to go ahead and move on to our next great thinker, Ivan Illich. We will return to Postman and Arendt eventually, but for now it seems like a good time to dive into the thought of another of our great 20th century giants. Ivan…
