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ILLICH, Ivan

Pensador, filósofo, teólogo
1926 - Viena. Austria
2002 - Bremen. Alemania

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Ivan Illich's intellectual personality is characterized by his criticism of the “key to progress” institutions, denouncing the voracious consumption of energy to continue economic development.

In his writings written from 1970 onwards, The Unschooled Society (1971), Coexistence (1973), Energy and Equity (1974)... he shows an analytical vision of the limitations of fields as important as economic progress, education and medicine in the Western world.Areas that have been established in society as unique paths of recognition, not sufficiently considering other personal and social values that exist in the world and that help make it more creative, harmonious and supportive.

A supporter of the ordinary use of the bicycle as a means of transport, he is opposed to the massive use of the automobile and its involvement in urban developments, full of speed and consumerist voracity.

In the field of construction he reflects on the figure that the architect has in society, whose professional action is based on urban codes of strictly economic criteria.

Defender of degrowth and simple living, critical of permanent consumerism and the massive application of technology in all facets of life, he defines the theory of post-development.

The coherence with his ideas is reflected in a special way with his own life evolution, when doctors detected a terminal cancerous process, giving him a life expectancy of several months, which he refused to treat medically. With a relationship between serene and stoic, he took care of his illness himself. Using therapeutic techniques of meditation, yoga... opium and painkillers, he made his life continue for twenty more years.

Mariano J RUIZ DE AEL

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