Michael Löwy

Michael Löwy (born May 6, 1938, São Paulo, Brazil) is a French-Brazilian Marxist sociologist and philosopher. He is emeritus research director in social sciences at the CNRS (French National Center of Scientific Research) and lectures at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS; Paris, France). Author of books on Karl Marx, Che Guevara, Liberation Theology, György Lukács, Walter Benjamin, Lucien Goldmann and Franz Kafka, he received the CNRS Silver Medal in 1994.

A descendant of Jewish immigrants from Vienna, Löwy grew up in São Paulo, Brazil, becoming a committed socialist at 16 (1954), when he discovered the writings of Rosa Luxemburg. He studied at the University of São Paulo, where he had as teachers Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Florestan Fernandes and Antônio Cândido); he got his license in Social Sciences in 1960 and lectured in sociology for a year at the University of São José do Rio Preto (State of São Paulo).