Bernard Stiegler (1 April 1952 – 5 August 2020) was a French philosopher. He was head of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI), which he founded in 2006 at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. He was also the founder in 2005 of the political and cultural group, Ars Industrialis; the founder in 2010 of the philosophy school, pharmakon.fr, held at Épineuil-le-Fleuriel; and a co-founder in 2018 of Collectif Internation, a group of "politicised researchers" His best known work is Technics and Time, 1: The Fault of Epimetheus. Stiegler has been described as "one of the most influential European philosophers of the 21st century" and an important theorist of the effects of digital technology.

Early life and education

Bernard Stiegler was born in Villebon-sur-Yvette, France. Growing up, he took an interest in politics, aligning with beliefs from left wings politics and the French Communist Party by the time he was 16. He had dropped out of high school and instead took part in student revolts against current president Charles De Gaulle. However, in 1976, he left the Communist Party. Following his departure from the political scene, Bernard would spend his 20s hopping through a variety of jobs, including farming, office, being a shop clerk, and manual labor, as well as owning a jazz bar. Between 1978 and 1983 Stiegler was incarcerated for armed robbery, first at the Prison Saint-Michel in Toulouse, and then at the Centre de détention in Muret. It was during this period that he became interested in philosophy, studying it by correspondence with Gérard Granel at the Université de Toulouse-Le-Mirail. He recounts his transformation in prison in his book, Passer à l'acte (2003; the English translation of this work is included in the 2009 volume Acting Out).

Career

In 1987–88, with Catherine Counot, Stiegler commissioned an exhibition at the Centre Georges-Pompidou, entitled Mémoires du futur: bibliothèques et technologies. Stiegler earned his doctorate from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in 1993 under the direction of Jacques Derrida, and obtained his Habilitation in 2007 at the université Paris Diderot-Paris 7 under the direction of Dominique Lecourt. He was a Director at the Collège international de philosophie, and a professor at the Université de Technologie at Compiègne, as well as a visiting professor at Goldsmiths, University of London. He held the positions of Director General at the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel (INA), and Director General at the Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM). In June 2005 Stiegler founded a political and cultural group, Ars Industrialis, the manifesto of which calls for an "industrial politics of spirit." The manifesto was signed by Stiegler and the other co-founders of the group, George Collins, Marc Crépon, Catherine Perret and Caroline Stiegler. An updated manifesto was released in 2010. On 1 January 2006 he became Director of the Department of Cultural Development at the Centre Georges-Pompidou. He was Director of the Institut de recherche et d'innovation (IRI), which was created at his initiative in April 2006. On 18 September 2010 Stiegler opened his own philosophy school (called pharmakon.fr) in the small French town of Épineuil-le-Fleuriel, in the department of Cher. across multiple disciplines. The school ran a course for lycée students in the region, a doctoral program conducted by videoconference, and a summer academy that involves both groups of students as well as interested inhabitants from the surrounding area. At a philosophical level, the school was engaged in research, critique and analysis in line with Stiegler's pharmacological approach.

Personal life and death

Stiegler was at one time involved in a relationship with Catherine Malabou. Later he married Caroline Stiegler (née Fayat), who had been his lawyer. Stiegler had a daughter Barbara Stiegler born 1971, who is also a philosopher and professor at the Université Bordeaux-Montaigne. Stiegler died by suicide on 5 August 2020. Stiegler is survived by his wife, Caroline Stiegler, and four children.

Work

Stiegler's work is influenced by, among others, Sigmund Freud, André Leroi-Gourhan, Gilbert Simondon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Valéry, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Karl Marx, Gilles Deleuze, Donald Winnicott, Georges Bataille, and Jacques Derrida. Key themes are technology, time, individuation, consumerism, consumer capitalism, technological convergence, digitization, Americanization, education and the future of politics and human society. Stiegler was a prolific author of books, articles and interviews, with his first book being published in 1994. His works include several ongoing series of books:

Cinema and television

Stiegler features prominently in a number of works of film and television, and appeared on French television numerous times.

Awards

Books in French

Books in English

Other English translations