Gilles Lipovetsky

Gilles Lipovetsky (born September 24, 1944 in Millau) is a French philosopher, writer and sociologist, professor at the University of Grenoble.

Lipovetsky was born in Millau in 1944. He studied philosophy at University of Grenoble, and participated in the 1968 student uprising in Paris to change the French educational model. However he criticizes the model that came from that as producing alienated individuals with fragile personalities prone to emotional disorder due to hedonism and immediate gratification.

He began his academic career teaching classes with his alma mater. With the success of his first book, he has become well known in many parts of the world and has become one of the most important French intellectuals of the latter 20th century.

Along with tenure, he has received two honorary doctorates from the Université de Sherbrooke in Québec (Canada) and from the New Bulgarian University in Sofia, membership in the Conseil d'analyse de la société of the French government, knighthood in the Legion of Honor, membership in the National Council of Programs and is a consultant with the Association of Management Progress.

Lipovetsky began his philosophical career as a Marxist, similar to many others in the 1960s, affiliated with the “Socialisme ou Barbarie” which demanded the world not to transform it but rather to “swallow it.” However, since then, his philosophy has changed significantly, including the acceptance of capitalism as “the only legitimate economic model.” When questioned about his change in stance from his Marxist beginning he replies “Only idiots never change opinion.”

Lipovetsky’s work focuses on the modern world from the latter 20th century to the present. His has divided this time period into three periods: “Marxist self criticism” (1965-1983), post- modern (1983-1991) and the hyper modern period from 1991 on. This began with his 1983 book, which declared the world to be post-modern, characterized by extreme individualism and the dissolution of politics based on political parties, turning its back on a strong sense of social duty on which democracy and socialism depend. However, by the end of the 2000s, he proposed that this term had become obsolete and unable to describe the world past 1991. He then proposed “hyper-modern,” similar to post-modern but with a superlative and unstoppable meaning, focusing on new technologies, markets, and global culture.

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