François (Robert) Ewald (born 29 April 1946, in

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris ...

) is a French philosopher. An assistant to

Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...

in the 1970s, he has overseen the publication of much of Foucault's literary estate. Ewald's own work has applied Foucault's notion of

governmentality Governmentality is a theory of power developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault, which analyses ''governmental" power through both the power states have over the population and the means by which subjects govern themselves. As a form of pow ...

to a history of the

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the State (polity), state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal oppor ...

.Michael C. Behrent
Accidents Happen: François Ewald, the "Antirevolutionary" Foucault, and the Intellectual Politics of the French Welfare State
''

The Journal of Modern History ''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appro ...

'' 82 (September 2010), pp.585-624

Life

Ewald studied philosophy at the Sorbonne in the mid-1960s. After the events of

May 1968 The following events occurred in May 1968: May 1, 1968 (Wednesday) *In Dallas, at its first meeting since its creation through a merger, the United Methodist Church removed its rule that Methodist ministers could not drink alcohol nor sm ...

, he joined the Maoist

Gauche prolétarienne The (GP) was a French Maoist political party which existed from 1968 to 1974. As Christophe Bourseiller put it, "Of all the Maoist organizations after May 1968, the most important numerically as well as in cultural influence was without question ...

(GP). Teaching philosophy at a Bruay-en-Artois

lycée In France, secondary education is in two stages: * ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 14. * ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for students between ...

in the early 1970s, he was at the centre of the political drama which unfolded when a middle-class lawyer was arrested for the mutilation and murder of a local miner's daughter: ''La Cause du Peuple'', the GP's paper, publicized the case with the headline 'Bruay: And Now They Are Massacring Our Children!' Foucault met Ewald when visiting to inspect the scene of the murder in June 1972, and after the GP imploded Ewald turned to Foucault to reconstruct his intellectual outlook. Ewald was Foucault's assistant from 1976 until Foucault's death in 1984, and has co-edited posthumous volumes of Foucault's writings and lectures. Invited by Daniel Defert to contribute to a government report on workplace accidents, Ewald came to view the 1898 Law on Accidents at Work — with an actuarial concept of risk replacing juridical concepts of responsibility — as crucial to the modern welfare state. Ewald interpreted Foucault's analysis of power as showing the need for political struggle without any "reference to the Revolution", and moved closer to the

New Philosophers The New Philosophers () is the generation of French philosophers who are united by their respective breaks from Marxism in the early 1970s. They also criticized the highly influential thinker Jean-Paul Sartre and the concept of post-structuralism, ...

in a call "to marry the points of view of

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche became the youngest pro ...

and Solzhenitsyn".Ewald, 'Il ya tant d'aurores qui n'ont pas encore lui...', '' Le Débat'' 4 (1980), pp.31-33. Cited in Behrent, p.604. By the early 1990s Ewald "had become the house intellectual of the French insurance industry and ideological standard-bearer of the Medef, France's primary employers' organization." François Ewald was part of the " Coppens commission" who prepared the French

Charter for the Environment The Charter for the Environment () is a constitutional law of France approved in 2005, forming part of the constitutional block () of French law having the same force as the Constitution. The Charter recognizes some fundamental rights and duties ...

of 2004. In 2006 he received the

Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

Works

* ''L'état providence'' he Welfare State Paris: B. Grasset, 1986. * (ed. with Florence Bellivier et al.) ''Naissance du Code civil: la raison du législateur'' he birth of the Civil Code: the legislator's reason Paris: Flammarion, 1989. * 'Norms, Discipline and the Law', ''Representations'' 30 (Spring 1990), pp. 138–61 * 'Insurance and Risk', in Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon & Peter Miller, eds., ''The Foucault Effect'', Chicago, 1991 * ''Histoire de l'Etat providence: Les Origines de la solidarité'' istory of the welfare state: the origins of solidarity 1996. * (ed. with Jean-Hervé Lorenzi) ''Encyclopédie de l'assurance'' ncyclopedia of insurance Paris: Economica, 1997. * (ed. with T. McGleenan & Urban Wiesing) ''Genetics and insurance'', Oxford, UK: Bios Scientific Publishers, 1999. * 'Foucault and the contemporary scene', ''Philosophy and Social Criticism'' 25: 3 (1999), pp. 81–91 * ''Le principe de précaution'' he precautionary principle 2001.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ewald, Francois People from Boulogne-Billancourt 1946 births Living people 20th-century French philosophers 21st-century French philosophers 20th-century French historians 21st-century French historians French Maoists Michel Foucault