Philippe van Parijs
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Philippe Van Parijs (; born May 23, 1951) is a Belgian political philosopher and political economist, best known as a proponent and main defender of the concept of an unconditional basic income and for the first systematic treatment of linguistic justice. In 2020, he was listed by ''Prospect'' as the eighth-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era, with the magazine writing, "Today’s young UBI enthusiasts draw on the books and tap the networks of this Belgian polymath, who championed it before it was fashionable. For decades, he has warned that our proclaimed freedoms to start businesses or raise children count for nothing without the real freedom that comes with a basic income".


Early life and education

Van Parijs studied
philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
,
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...
,
political economy Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...
,
sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...
and
linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
at the Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
, at the
Université catholique de Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...
(UCLouvain) in
Louvain-la-Neuve Louvain-la-Neuve (; French for "New Leuven"; ) is a planned town in the municipality of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, Wallonia, Belgium, situated 30 km southeast of Brussels, in the province of Walloon Brabant. The town was built to house th ...
, at the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...
(KU Leuven) in
Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...
, in
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
,
Bielefeld Bielefeld () is a city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 341,755, it is also the most populous city in the administrative region () of Detmold (region), Detmold and the L ...
and
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
( Berkeley). He holds doctorates in the
social science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...
s (Louvain, 1977) and in philosophy (Oxford, 1980).


Career

He is professor at the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences of the University of Louvain (UCLouvain), where he directs the Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics since its creation in 1991. He was a visiting professor at
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
's Department of Philosophy from 2004 to 2011, and has been a visiting professor at the
Higher Institute of Philosophy The Institut supérieur de Philosophie (ISP) (French for: Higher Institute of Philosophy) is an independent research institute at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. It is a separate entity to the UCLouvain School ...
of the
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...
since 2006, and a senior research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, since 2011. Van Parijs has also held visiting positions at the Universities of
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...
,
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
,
Siena Siena ( , ; traditionally spelled Sienna in English; ) is a city in Tuscany, in central Italy, and the capital of the province of Siena. It is the twelfth most populated city in the region by number of inhabitants, with a population of 52,991 ...
,
Québec Quebec is Canada's largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, New Brunswick to the southeast and a coastal border ...
(
Montréal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
),
Wisconsin Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
( Madison),
Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...
(Orono) and Aix-Marseille, the
European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral research-intensive university and an intergovernmental organisation with juridical personality, established by its founding member states to contribu ...
(
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
), the
Russian Academy of Sciences The Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS; ''Rossíyskaya akadémiya naúk'') consists of the national academy of Russia; a network of scientific research institutes from across the Russian Federation; and additional scientific and social units such ...
(Moscow), the
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public university, public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and r ...
, the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) is a Chinese state research institute and think tank. It is a ministry-level institution under the State Council of the People's Republic of China. The CASS is the highest academic institution and c ...
(Beijing), the Catholic Faculties of
Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ), formerly named Léopoldville from 1881–1966 (), is the Capital city, capital and Cities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is one of the world's fastest-grow ...
(Congo),
All Souls College All Souls College (official name: The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed, of Oxford) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full me ...
(Oxford),
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
,
Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...
(Paris), the Catholic University of Uruguay, the
Autonomous University of Barcelona The Autonomous University of Barcelona (; Spanish: ; ; UAB) is a public university mostly located in Cerdanyola del Vallès, near the city of Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. , the university consists of 57 departments in the experimental, lif ...
and the
École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...
(Paris). He is one of the founders of the Basic Income European Network (BIEN) in 1986, which became the
Basic Income Earth Network The Basic Income Earth Network (BIEN; until 2004 Basic Income European Network) is a network of academics and activists interested in the idea of basic income. It serves as a link between individuals and groups committed to or interested in ...
in 2004, and he chairs its International Board. He coordinates the Ethical Forum of the
University Foundation The Belgian University Foundation (French: ''Fondation Universitaire''; Dutch: ''Universitaire Stichting'') was founded in 1920. The goal of the Foundation, as was put forward by Émile Francqui, Emile Francqui, is to promote scientific activity a ...
. He also coordinates the Pavia Group with Kris Deschouwer and, with
Paul De Grauwe Paul De Grauwe (; born 18 July 1946) is a Belgium, Belgian economics, economist and John Paulson Professor in European Political Economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science as head of the European Institute. He is also profess ...
, the Re-Bel initiative. He is a member of Belgium's Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts, of the International Institute of Philosophy, and of the
European Academy of Sciences and Arts The European Academy of Sciences and Arts (EASA, ) is a transnational and interdisciplinary network, connecting about 2,000 recommended scientists and artists worldwide, including 38 Nobel Prize laureates. The European Academy of Sciences and ...
and fellow of the
British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...
. In 2001, he was awarded the Francqui Prize, Belgium's most generous scientific prize.


Work


Basic income

In ''Real Freedom for All: What (if anything) can justify capitalism?'' (1995) he argues for both the justice and feasibility of a basic income for every citizen. Van Parijs asserts that it promotes the achievement of a real freedom to make choices. For example, he purports that one cannot really choose to stay at home to raise children or start a business if one cannot afford to. As proposed by Van Parijs, such freedom should be feasible through taxing the scarce, valued social good of jobs, as a form of
income redistribution Redistribution of income and wealth is the transfer of income and wealth (including physical property) from some individuals to others through a social mechanism such as taxation, welfare, public services, land reform, monetary policies, ...
.


Linguistic justice

Another part of Van Parijs' work is about linguistic justice. In order to address the injustice arising from the privilege enjoyed by English as a global ''
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...
'', he discusses a wide range of measures such as a language tax which would be paid by English-speaking countries, a ban on the dubbing of films, and the enforcement of a linguistic territoriality principle that would protect weaker languages. Van Parijs's work is sometimes associated with the September Group of analytic Marxism, though he is not himself a Marxist.


Honours

* Ailsa McKay Lecture, 2017 * Francqui Prize, 2001 * Permanent member, Institut international de philosophie, 1999.


Bibliography

Van Parijs' books include: *''Evolutionary Explanation in the Social Sciences'' (1981) *''Le Modèle économique et ses rivaux'' (1990) *''Qu'est-ce qu'une société juste?'' (1991) *''Marxism Recycled'' (1993) *''Real Freedom for All'' (1995) *''Sauver la solidarité'' (1995) *''Refonder la solidarité'' (1996) *''Solidariteit voor de XXIste eeuw'' (1997) *''Ethique économique et sociale'' (2000, with C. Arnsperger) *''What's Wrong with a Free Lunch?'' (2001) *''Hacia una concepción de la justicia global'' (2002) *''Cultural Diversity versus Economic Solidarity'' (as editor, 2004) *''L'Allocation universelle'' (2005, with Y. Vanderborght) *''Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World'' (2011) *''Just Democracy. The Rawls-Machiaveli Programme'' (2011) *''Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy'' (2017) Festschrift in honour of Van Parijs *''Arguing About Justice: Essays for Philippe Van Parijs'' (Axel Gosseries & Yannick Vanderborght eds., Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2012) was published on the occasion of his 60th birthday.


References


External links


Personal homepage


interview with Chris Bertram, ''Imprints'', vol. 1, no. 3 (March 1997)
No conditions attached
interview by the magazine ''Europe & Me'', July 2012 {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Parijs, Philippe 1951 births 20th-century Belgian philosophers 21st-century Belgian philosophers Universal basic income activists Belgian economists Belgian political philosophers Academic staff of the European University Institute Harvard University staff Left-libertarians Living people Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Universal basic income writers Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Bielefeld University alumni