Bernard Stiegler
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" across multiple disciplines. 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. Influences and themes. 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. Incarceration. Between 1978 and 1983 Stiegler was incarcerated for armed robbery, first at the in Toulouse, and then at the 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. His transformation in prison is recounted 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 has been 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 has 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). On 1 January 2006 he commenced as 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. Works. Stiegler has been prolifically publishing books, articles and interviews since 1994. His works include several ongoing series of books: Ars Industrialis. On 18 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, , Catherine Perret and Caroline Stiegler. An updated manifesto was released in 2010. Épineuil-le-Fleuriel. 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. The school runs 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. The context and themes of the school lie in Stiegler's argument that we are entering a period of post-consumerism and post-globalization. At a philosophical level, the school is engaged in research, critique and analysis in line with Stiegler's pharmacological approach. Cinema and television . Stiegler features prominently in a number of works of film and television, and has appeared on French television numerous times. Among his most significant appearances are the following: Family. Stiegler's daughter (born 1971) is also a philosopher. She attended the École Normale Supérieure de Fontenay-St-Cloud, and in 2003 obtained her doctorate from the . Barbara Stiegler is professor at the Université Bordeaux-Montaigne. She is the author of "Nietzsche et la biologie" (2001), "Nietzsche et la critique de la chair: Dionysos, Ariane, le Christ" (2005), "« Il faut s'adapter » : Sur un nouvel impératif politique" (2019), "Du cap aux grèves . Récit d'une mobilisation. 17 novembre 2018 - 5 mars 2020" (2020) and "De la démocratie en Pandémie ; santé, recherche, éducation" (2021). She is not to be confused with the German sociologist of the same name.