Michael Löwy (born 6 May 1938) is a French-Brazilian
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
sociologist and
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
. He is
emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
research director in social sciences at the
CNRS
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
(French National Center of Scientific Research) and lectures at the ''École des hautes études en sciences sociales'' (
EHESS
The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (french: École des hautes études en sciences sociales; EHESS) is a graduate ''grande école'' and ''grand établissement'' in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The ...
;
Paris,
France). Author of books on
Karl Marx,
Che Guevara,
Liberation Theology,
György Lukács,
Walter Benjamin,
Lucien Goldmann and
Franz Kafka, he received the
CNRS Silver Medal in 1994.
Academic career
A descendant of
Jewish immigrants from
Vienna, Löwy grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, becoming a committed
socialist at 16 (1954), when he discovered the writings of
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
. He studied at the
University of São Paulo, where he studied under
Fernando Henrique Cardoso,
Florestan Fernandes and
Antônio Cândido); he got his license in
Social Sciences in 1960 and lectured in
sociology for a year at the University of
São José do Rio Preto (
State of São Paulo).
In 1961 he received a
scholarship for a doctorate in
Paris,
France, which he did under the guidance of the well-known
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
philosopher and sociologist of culture
Lucien Goldmann, who had a lasting influence on his views. He received his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in 1964, with a thesis on "The Young Marx’s Theory of Revolution", at the
Sorbonne.
Soon afterwards Löwy went to
Israel where his family had migrated. He learned
Hebrew and became a lecturer in political philosophy at the
University of Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
, but his political views led to problems, and the University refused to renew his contract in 1968. He was invited - in an act of solidarity - to lecture at the
University of Manchester, where he became assistant to the sociologist and founder of the
New Left
The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
,
Peter Worsley
Peter Maurice Worsley (6 May 1924 – 15 March 2013) was a noted British sociologist and social anthropologist. He was a major figure in both anthropology and sociology, and is noted for introducing the term ''Third World'' into English. H ...
(1968–1969).
In 1969 Löwy returned to Paris to work with
Nicos Poulantzas at the
University of Paris VIII (Vincennes), and from that moment on established himself definitively in France. In the 1970s he worked, under the direction of
Louis-Vincent Thomas
Louis-Vincent Thomas (20 May 1922 – 22 January 1994) was a French sociologist, anthropologist, ethnologist, and scholar whose specialty was Africa. He was the founder of thanatology. After having taught at Cheikh Anta Diop University, he became ...
, on his
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
(doctorat d’état) on György Lukács, presented in 1975 at the
University of Paris V
Paris Descartes University (french: Université Paris 5 René Descartes, links=no), also known as Paris V, was a French public university located in Paris. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 ...
(Descartes), and graduated with honours. Löwy lectured in sociology at the University of Paris VIII till 1978 when he was admitted as a researcher at the CNRS.
In 1981 Löwy began also to lecture at the prestigious ''École des hautes études en sciences sociales'' (EHESS) in París; he has also been invited to lecture at
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
,
UC Berkeley,
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor,
Columbia University and
Harvard University, as well as other US Universities. In 1994 he received the
CNRS Silver Medal.
He is emeritus
research director
The chief research officer (CRO), research officer, or research director, is a job title commonly given to the most senior executive in an enterprise responsible for the research that supports enterprise goals. Generally, the CRO reports to the ch ...
in social sciences at the CNRS and teaches at the EHESS. He is member of the editorial board of the journals Archives de sciences sociales des religions,
Actuel Marx ''Actuel Marx'' is a book series of Marxist studies, edited by Jacques Bidet, Gérard Duménil, and Emmanuel Renault. The series is published by the Presses universitaires de France with support from the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense ...
,
ContreTemps and
Écologie et politique, as well as a fellow and regular lecturer at the
International Institute for Research and Education in
Amsterdam.
Scientific interests
Until 1985 most of Löwy's works concerned the sociological and historical study of
Marxist thought. This applies not only to his doctorate on the
young Marx and his Habilitation on György Lukács, but to most of the essays which he published, some of which were collected in books, as well as for two anthologies, on the
National Question
''National question'' is a term used for a variety of issues related to nationalism. It is seen especially often in socialist thought and doctrine.
In socialism
* ''Social Democracy and the National Question'' by Vladimir Medem in 1904
* ''So ...
(with
Georges Haupt
Georges Haupt (January 18 , 1928–1978) was a historian of socialism
The history of socialism has its origins in the 1789 French Revolution and the changes which it brought, although it has precedents in earlier movements and ideas. ''The C ...
and
Claudie Weill
Claudie Weill (1945 – 29 September 2018) was a French historian. She worked on the history of the German working world. She was also a specialist on Rosa Luxemburg.
Partial publications
*Claudie Weill, Les cosmopolites - Socialisme et judéit ...
) and on
Marxism in
Latin America.
Marxist
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
epistemology also takes a central place in his work on
sociology of knowledge from 1985.
The methodological orientation of his research was inspired by Lucien Goldmann's writings -particularly
The Hidden God
The hidden God (Latin: ''Deus absconditus'') refers to the Christian idea of the fundamental unknowability of the essence of God. The name comes from the Bible, specifically from the book of Isaiah: "Indeed, you are a hidden God, you God of Israel, ...
, 1955)- whose approach, associating sociology and history,
heterodox Marxism and
German sociology, the internal study of cultural works and their connexion to the
social structure, served him as starting point.
From the mid 1980s Löwy became interested in the
Central European Jewish Culture, in
Romantic anticapitalism and on the complex interrelations between
religion and
politics, particularly in Latin America. The concept of
elective affinity, borrowed from
Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...
, but re-interpreted, became one of the key methodological tools of his research. His latest books concern
Walter Benjamin’s
Theses on the Philosophy of History
"Theses on the Philosophy of History" or "On the Concept of History" (german: Über den Begriff der Geschichte) is an essay written in early 1940 by German philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin. It is one of Benjamin's best-known, and most contr ...
(1940), which Löwy considers as one of the most important documents of
revolutionary thinking since Marx’s
Theses on Feuerbach; and Franz Kafka as an anti-authoritarian author, with
Anarchist
Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...
sympathies, whose novels are inspired by a sort of "religion of liberty".
In spite of the diversity of its thematic contents, most of Michael Löwy writings, since his PhD on
Marx till now, belong to a
sociology of culture, of Marxist/historicist orientation. Inspired by Lukács and Lucien Goldmann, they also refer to the great tradition of German sociology, from Weber to
Karl Mannheim. Their aim is to analyse, interpret and explain the relations between
cultural phenomena -particularly religious and political– by situating them in precise social and historical contexts.
Commitments
Löwy is linked to the Revolutionary Marxist current in France, and one of his last books, on Che Guevara, was written in collaboration with
Olivier Besancenot,
presidential candidate of the LCR (French
Revolutionary Communist League), a
Trotskyist party linked to the
Fourth International. He is a member of the association
ATTAC
The Association pour la Taxation des Transactions financières et pour l'Action Citoyenne (''Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Citizen's Action'', ATTAC) is an activist organisation originally created to promote the e ...
, of the
Copernicus Foundation
The Copernicus Foundation ( pl, Fundacja Kopernikowska) is a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization based in the Jefferson Park, Chicago, Jefferson Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois.
It was founded by Poles in Chicago in 1971 in order to r ...
and of
Espaces Marx. He has kept intense political contacts in Brazil.
He cooperated with left currents of the Brazilian
Workers' Party (PT) for several years but during recent years his main contact has been with the Brazilian
Landless Workers Movement
Landless Workers' Movement ( pt, Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, MST) is a social movement in Brazil, inspired by Marxism, generally regarded as one of the largest in Latin America with an estimated informal membership of 1.5 milli ...
(MST), to whom he gave the money of the Prize Sergio Buarque de Hollanda which he received in 2000 for his book
The war of Gods
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
. Nowadays Löwy supports
Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), a left dissidence of PT.
Löwy has taken part in the
World Social Forum since the beginning, where he has presented several papers, one of which was in collaboration with the Brazilian liberation theologian
Frei Betto
Carlos Alberto Libânio Christo (born 1944), better known as Frei Betto is a Brazilian writer, political activist, philosopher, liberation theologian, and former Dominican friar.
Life
Frei Betto was born on 25 August 1944 in Belo Horizonte. A ...
. More recently, Löwy joined the struggle for
ecosocialism; co-author, with
Joel Kovel
Joel Stephen Kovel (August 27, 1936 – April 30, 2018) was an American scholar and author known as a founder of eco-socialism. Kovel became a psychoanalyst, but he abandoned psychoanalysis in 1985.
Background
Kovel was born on August 27, 193 ...
, of the
International Ecosocialist Manifesto, he was also one of the organizers of the
First Ecosocialist International Meeting in Paris (2007).
Interested since his youth by
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
—he met the poet
Benjamin Péret
Benjamin Péret (4 July 1899 – 18 September 1959) was a French poet, Parisian Dadaist and a founder and central member of the French Surrealist movement with his avid use of Surrealist automatism.
Biography
Benjamin Péret was born in Rezé, ...
during a visit in Paris in 1958—Löwy joined the
Paris Surrealist Group, by invitation of
Vincent Bounoure
Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer'').
People with the given name Artists
*Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor
*Vincent van Gogh ...
, its main organizer since 1969. Two of his books are devoted to Surrealism, in its utopian and revolutionary dimension.
Publications
* ''The Marxism of Che Guevara'', New York, Monthly Review Press, 1973. (Second Edition : Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.
* "Marxism and Revolutionary Romanticism". ''
Telos'' 49 (Fall 1981). New York: Telos Press.
* ''Georg Lukács: from Romanticism to Bolchevism'', London, Verso, 1981.
* ''The politics of combined and uneven development. The theory of permanent revolution'', London, Verso Books, 1981.
* ''Redemption and Utopia. Libertarian Judaism in Central Europe'', Stanford University Press, 1992.
* ''Marxism in Latin America from 1909 to the Present'', New Jersey, Humanities Press, 1992.
* ''On Changing the World. Essays in political philosophy: from Karl Marx to Walter Benjamin'', New Jersey, Humanities Press, 1993. (Also in Japanese and Persian).
* ''The war of gods. Religion and Politics in Latin America'', London, Verso, 1996.
* ''Fatherland or Mother Earth? Essays on the national question'', London, Pluto Press, 1998.
* ''Morning Star. Surrealism, Marxism, Anarchism, Situationism, Utopia'', Austin, University of Texas Press, 2000.
* ''Romanticism against the Tide of Modernity'' (with Robert Sayre), Durham, Duke University Press, 2001.
* Joel Kovel and Michael Löwy (2002), "Manifeste écosocialiste international".
* ''Franz Kafka, rêveur insoumis'', Paris, Editions Stock, 2004.
* ''Fire Alarm. Reading Walter Benjamin’s ‘On the Concept of History' '', London, Verso, 2005.
* ''The Theory of Revolution in the Young Marx'', Leiden/Boston, Brill, 2003.
* ''Che Guevara, une braise qui brûle encore'', with
Olivier Besancenot, Paris, Mille et une nuits, 2007.
* Michael Löwy
"Why Ecosocialism: For a Red-Green Future" ''Great Transition Initiative'' (December 2018).
References
*
Richard Wolin"A Metaphysical Materialist" ''The Nation'', October 16, 2006, p. 30-35.
External links
*
ttp://lahaine.org/index.php?blog=3&p=12099 Interview with Néstor KohanEurope Solidaire Includes many of his articles in French and English.
Michael Löwy a collection of his writings in ''
International Viewpoint
''International Viewpoint'' is the English-language online magazine of the Trotskyist reunified Fourth International. It focuses on publishing articles on the political and social situation throughout the world, notably by translating articles in ...
''
Franz Kafka and Libertarian Socialismby Michael Löwy
provides a biographical sketch and a selective bibliography on Michael Löwy.
*
ttp://www.internationalviewpoint.org/spip.php?article1144 Che Guevara: The Spark that does not Dieby Michael Löwy, July 1997
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lowy, Michael
1938 births
20th-century social scientists
20th-century French scientists
20th-century French writers
21st-century social scientists
21st-century French writers
Anti-consumerists
20th-century Brazilian Jews
Brazilian anti-capitalists
Brazilian emigrants to France
Brazilian people of Austrian-Jewish descent
Brazilian Marxists
French National Centre for Scientific Research scientists
Ecosocialists
French male writers
French sociologists
French Trotskyists
Jewish philosophers
Jewish socialists
Living people
New Anticapitalist Party politicians
University of Paris alumni
University of Paris faculty
Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis faculty
Marxist theorists
People from São Paulo
Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research