Ivan Illich was an Austrian philosopher, Catholic priest, and writer who criticized modern institutions and technologies. He was born in 1926 in Vienna and studied in several European cities before becoming a priest and moving to the US. Illich later left the priesthood and moved to Mexico, where he established an intercultural research center. He wrote several influential books critiquing issues like education, medicine, and technology. Illich argued that institutions often end up serving purposes opposite of their original intentions and advocated for more convivial and decentralized systems. He died in 2002 in Germany.

1. Ivan Illich
1926—2002

2. Who was Ivan Illich?
 Writer
 Teacher
 Thinker
 Philosopher
 Roman Catholic Priest
 Ignored by mainstream media
 His work was neglected and side-lined.

3. Biography
 Born on Sept. 4, 1926, in Vienna.
 His father, a civil engineer and his mother was
a Jew.
 Was expelled from school in Vienna in 1941
because of his mother’s Jewish ancestry.
 Studied in Florence, Rome and in Salzburg.
 Doctoral dissertation on the historian Arnold
Toynbee.
 Ordained as a priest, settled in Manhattan,
USA in 1952.

4.  Attended to the needs of Puerto Ricans –
especially their education.
 Criticised the church for its ‘smugness, its
bureaucracy and chauvinism’.
 Moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico City where he
set up the Intercultural Center for
Documentation (CIDOC).
 Left priesthood in 1969.
 Began writing critical essays in the 60s
 Died of cancer in 2002, in Germany.

5. Works & Themes
 Deschooling Society – 1971 on education
 Tools for Conviviality – 1973 on technological
development
 Energy And Equity- 1974 on energy, transport and
economic development
 Medical Nemesis – 1975 on modern medicine
 The Right To Useful Unemployment And Its Professional
Enemies- 1978
 Shadow Work- 1981
 H2O And The Waters of Forgetfulness- 1985 on the
historicity of materials
 ABC, The Alphabetisation Of The Popular Mind- 1988 on
literacy
 In The Vineyard Of The Text- 1993 on the origins of book-
learning

6. Philosophy
 A critic of modernity
 A deep understanding of the birth of
institutions in the 13th century
 An archaeologist of ideas
 He analysed the corruption of institutions.
 Institutions ended up performing the
opposite of their original purpose.
 "corruptio optimi pessima―- the corruption
of the best is the worst.
 Conviviality – friendliness.

7. Deschooling Society
 Critique of institutionalized education.
 Opposed universal education.
 More education does not produce better
educated individuals.
 Institutionalization of education causes
the institutionalization of the entire
society.
 Suggests that educational funnels be
replaced by learning webs.

8. Links and References
 www.lewrockwell.com/wall/wall28.html
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2002/de
c/09/guardianobituaries.highereducation
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich