Toward a History of Needs

by Ivan Illich

Toward a History of Needs [paperback] Illich, Ivan [Jan 01, 1980]

Genres: Philosophy, Urban Planning, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Ivan Illich was an Austrian philosopher, Roman Catholic priest and critic of the institutions of contemporary western culture and their effects of the provenance and practice of education, medicine, work, energy use, and economic development.

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays that elaborates upon Illich's usual subjects. I found most interesting the development of his argument against high-speed traffic, celebrating instead the bicycle as the paradigm of mobility. As a pedestrian, bus rider, and sometimes cyclist in Los Angeles, much of what he said on that matter rang very true indeed (higher speeds only lead to greater social fragmentation; going slower saves you time -- the time spent earning money to go faster; etc.). Also appreciated was his call for energy temperance (which is, admittedly, far less radical today than it might've seemed at the time, but his spin on it is interesting). I am less convinced by his arguments against formal education. Still, his overall project of arguing for a more rationally holistic approach to fulfilling our needs (rather than succumbing to the industrial/modern logics of specialization and more=better) is an interesting one.

I will add that my reservations about Illich's positioning, as well as his style of delivery, remain.

[Kate Savage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Illich is a curmudgeon, and it's hard to agree with absolutely everything he says (though I eventually conceded to his idea of a 15-mph universal speed limit on all roadways). But curmudgeons, like prophets (and I suspect there's plenty of overlap), get to say whatever follows from a train of logic, rather than conceding to certain political expediencies. And that is what makes Illich spectacular.

This is a good volume to get a survey of all of Illich's issues -- education, medicine, transporation, housing, work, international development. If you have a stake in any of these things, be sure you read Illich at some point.

[Tara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read Ivan Illich. You don't have to agree with everything he says. But you need to read Ivan Illich. Read Ivan Illich. Read Ivan Illich.

[Kevin Carson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rereading for a C4SS paper

[MS Glennon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The underappreciated and I think now entirely out-of-print anarchist philosopher, chief proponent of austeririty in energy and transport, gadfly to the looming post-industrial order of a institutions legitimated and operated by cerdentialed professionals in a regime of "managerial fascism" whose idea of "development" or "progress" is more "education" of the kind which produces more people with credentials at the expense of many many more without them to be managed through radical monopolies of a service culture which not only exploits a consumer's foregotten knowledge of DIY, but exercises jurisdiction over what constitutes legitimate or even possible modes of education, transport, and limits to production-consumption.

Much in the way of rhetoric, Illich is a littls short on empirical matter, although he does provocatively make a call for 'counterfoil research'.

Take Illich with a little salt and a shnot of tequilla, don't dismiss him or laugh at the tumor which he left untreated on his cheek and its cancer which eventually left him dead. He has some novel ideas and unlike a lot of social theorists is PRESENT-FUTURE in orientation, which is probably another reason the academic canon has dropped him. Don't take hime too serious. His comunitas impulse is kind of naive, and Illich's communitarian anarchism has a marked authoritarian streak, although one which does strive toward an articulation of an ethical dimension these days called alterity...

[Devin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Toward a History of Needs contains five essays by Ivan Illich. These are:

1) Useful Unemployment and Its Professional Enemies
2) Outwitting Developed Nations
3) In Lieu of Education
4) Tantalizing Needs
5) Energy and Equity

I picked up this book specifically for the first and last essays, but the others are fascinating as well. Illich covers a lot of ground here, making this book an excellent introduction to his important ideas. He examines the foundations of industrial society and finds the source of our modern crises in the belief that we can act beyond human boundaries. He argues that this delusion has created structures of inequality, inefficiency, and authoritarian social control. If I had to pick one author to recommend to everyone, it's Illich. His books are a goldmine of rich, radical thought. They will set you thinking.

[Marina Dimova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illich' argument for the destruction of opportunities to experience personal and social satisfaction outside the market is very pertinent in rapidly modernizing societies.

[Odessia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty cool. But I feel like him using the term like “nemesis” is a kind of discursive strategy that implants reader with exaggerated imaginations to help him to talk the readers to convince his idea.

[José Pereira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Perspectivas invulgares, umas quantas observações perspicazes, mas argumentação, no geral, muito superficial. Vale, talvez, pelo efeito provocatório.
Tenho alguma simpatia pela ideia principal - que as sociedades pós-industriais fomentam uma progressiva perda de autonomia, uma limitação progressiva de opções reais, a todos os níveis. No entanto, Illich parece localizar a causa deste mal nas instituições como tal. Fazer uma oposição inquebrantável entre autonomia e institucionalismo é um erro pueril, e sugere um tradicionalismo primitivista ingénuo. Normas, estruturas e hábitos são necessários veículos para a volição e para o explanar de ideias/vontades individuais.

[Federico Arcuri · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Once the critical quantum of per-·capita energy is surpassed, education for the abstract goals of a bureaucracy must supplant the legal guarantees of personal and concrete initiative. This quantum is the limit of social order.”

[Max Falbo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Illich is much too idealistic in his approach and badly longs to return to a world that no longer exists rather than proposing relevant solutions to move forward. A book full of his societal lament with a couple decent nuggets scattered throughout but not much to take away.