François (Robert) Ewald (born 29 April 1946, in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French philosopher. An assistant to Michel Foucault 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 concept first developed by the French philosopher Michel Foucault in the later years of his life, roughly between 1977 and his death in 1984, particularly in his lectures at the Collège de France during this time. Governmenta ...

to a history of the

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the 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 opportunity, equita ...

.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 appr ...

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

Life

Ewald studied philosophy at the

Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...

in the mid-1960s. After the events of

May 1968 The following events occurred in May 1968: May 1, 1968 (Wednesday) * CARIFTA, the Caribbean Free Trade Association, was formally created as an agreement between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. * RAF Strike ...

, he joined the Maoist

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

(GP). Teaching philosophy at a Bruay-en-Artois lycée 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 In simple terms, risk is the possibility of something bad happening. Risk involves uncertainty about the effects/implications of an activity with respect to something that humans value (such as health, well-being, wealth, property or the environm ...

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 in a call "to marry the points of view of

Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his car ...

and

Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...

".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 The Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF), or the Movement of the Enterprises of France, is the largest employer federation in France. Established in 1998, it replaced the Conseil national du patronat Français ( CNPF), or the "National Cou ...

, France's primary employers' organization." François Ewald was part of the " Coppens commission" who prepared the French Charter for the Environment of 2004. In 2006 he received the

Legion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

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