Luc Ferry

Luc Ferry
Minister for Youth, National Education and Research
Ministre de la Jeunesse, de l'Éducation nationale et de la Recherche
In office
7 May 2002 – 31 March 2004
President Jacques Chirac
Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin
Preceded by Jack Lang
Succeeded by François Fillon
Personal details
Born (1951-01-01) 1 January 1951
Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine, France
Political party UMP
Profession Philosopher

Luc Ferry (French: [fɛʁi]; born January 1, 1951) is a French philosopher and politician, and a proponent of secular humanism. He is a former member of the Saint-Simon Foundation think-tank.

He received an Agrégation de philosophie (1975), a Doctorat d’Etat en science politique (1981), and an Agrégation de science politique (1982). As a Professor of political science and political philosophy, Luc Ferry taught at the Institut d'études politiques de Lyon (1982–1988) — during which time he also taught and directed graduate research at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University —, then at Caen University (1989–96). He finally was a professor at Paris Diderot University from 1996 until he resigned in 2011 when asked to actually teach there.

From 2002 and until 2004 he served as the Minister of Education on the cabinet led by the conservative Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. During his tenure, he was the minister in charge of the implementation of the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools. He received the award of Docteur honoris causa from the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada). He is the 2013 Telesio Galilei Academy of science Laureate for Philosophy.

He was created Chevalier De La Dive Bouteille De Gaillac on the 20 March 2012 together with Max Karoubi and Francesco Fucilla.

Controversies

In June 2011, Ferry announced on television that he knew about a former government minister who had sexually abused little boys in an orgy in Morocco.[1][2] According to him, the case was known at the highest levels of the French state, but he provided no specifics as to the persons involved, citing the risk of being sued for libel. A criminal investigation was then opened and he was asked to cooperate with the prosecutors.

In June 2011, Le Canard Enchaîné, Le Monde and other media[3][4] revealed that Luc Ferry, a professor at Paris Diderot University since 1996 (or 1997, depending on sources) had not ever taught there — when he was minister, he was on leave, and when not on leave his obligation to teach was waived in order for him to undertake other official duties. Some of those came with compensation pay, while he was still paid as a professor. In 2010, however, a change in legislation (introduced by minister Valérie Pécresse) made the University financially autonomous. It did not want to have professors on its payroll that did not teach, which may have made its president liable for misuse of public funds; it then required Luc Ferry to do his allocated teaching share, which he declined to do. In 2011, according to some sources, the university is threatening to get him to refund his salary (€4500 per month).

Works

  • La pensée '68 (1985)
  • Homo Aestheticus (1990)
  • The New Ecological Order (1992)
  • Rights: The New Quarrel Between the Ancients and the Moderns
  • Man Made God: The Meaning of Life (1992)
  • The Wisdom of the Moderns (1998)
  • Political Philosophy
  • French Philosophy of the 60s with Alain Renaut
  • Why We Are Not Nietzscheans, editor with Alain Renaut
  • "Qu'est-ce qu'une vie reussie?", (2002) Editions Grasset & Fasquelle
  • Le religieux après la religion (2004) with Marcel Gauchet
  • Apprendre à vivre (2006)
  • Vaincre les peurs. La philosophie comme amour de la sagesse,(2006), éditions Odile Jacob.
  • Kant. Une lecture des trois Critiques,(2006), éditions Grasset.
  • Familles, je vous aime : Politique et vie privée à l'âge de la mondialisation,(2007), XO Editions.
  • La tentation du christianisme with Lucien Jerphagnon, (2009), éditions Grasset.
  • La Révolution de l'amour (2010), Plon.
  • A Brief History of Thought: A Philosophical Guide to Living (2011)
  • On Love: A Philosophy for the Twenty-first Century (2012)
  • The Wisdom of the Myths: How Greek Mythology Can Change Your Life (2014)
  • La Révolution Transhumaniste. Comment la technomédecine et l'uberisation du monde vont bouleverser nos vies (2016), Plon.

References

Preceded by
Jack Lang		 Minister of National Education
2002 – 2004		 Succeeded by
François Fillon
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