View source for Philippe Van Parijs

{{Short description|Belgian philosopher (born 1951)}}
{{BLP sources|date=May 2010}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|birth_name       = Philippe Van Parijs
|region           = [[Western philosophy]]
|era              = [[Contemporary philosophy]]
|image            = Philippe Van Parijs Library 2.jpg
|caption          = 
|birth_date       = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1951|5|23}}
|birth_place      = [[Brussels]], [[Belgium]]
|school_tradition = [[Analytical Marxism]]<br>[[Left-libertarianism]]<ref>[[Peter Vallentyne|Vallentyne, Peter]] (2014). "[http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/libertarianism/ Libertarianism]". In ''[[Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''. [[Stanford University]].</ref>
|main_interests   = [[Political philosophy]], [[political economy]], [[distributive justice]]
|notable_ideas    = [[Universal basic income]], linguistic justice, [[language tax]], [[real freedom]]
|alma_mater       = [[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]]<br/>[[Bielefeld University]]<br/>[[Oxford University]]<br/>[[Université catholique de Louvain]]<br/>[[Saint-Louis University, Brussels]] 
|institutions    = [[Nuffield College, Oxford]], [[Université catholique de Louvain]], [[Harvard University]]
}}

'''Philippe Van Parijs''' ({{IPA|fr|filip vɑ̃ paʁɛjs|lang}}; born May 23, 1951) is a Belgian political philosopher and political economist, best known as a proponent and main defender of the concept of an [[Universal basic income|unconditional basic income]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.euractiv.com/section/social-europe-jobs/interview/van-parijs-an-unconditional-basic-income-in-europe-will-help-end-the-crisis/|title=Van Parijs: An unconditional basic income in Europe will help end the crisis|date=11 April 2014}}</ref> and for the first systematic treatment of linguistic justice.<ref>Philippe Van Parijs, ''Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World'', Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]], 2011.</ref>

In 2020, he was listed by [[Prospect (magazine)|''Prospect'']] as the eighth-greatest thinker for the COVID-19 era, with the magazine writing, "Today’s young UBI enthusiasts draw on the books and tap the networks of this Belgian polymath, who championed it before it was fashionable. For decades, he has warned that our proclaimed freedoms to start businesses or raise children count for nothing without the real freedom that comes with a basic income".<ref>{{Cite magazine|date=2020|title=The world's top 50 thinkers for the Covid-19 age|url=https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/content/uploads/2020/09/PWTT20.pdf|access-date=2020-09-08|magazine=Prospect}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Van Parijs studied [[philosophy]], [[law]], [[political economy]], [[sociology]] and [[linguistics]] at the [[Saint-Louis University, Brussels|Université Saint-Louis - Bruxelles]] in [[Brussels]], at the [[Université catholique de Louvain]] (UCLouvain) in [[Louvain-la-Neuve]], at the [[Katholieke Universiteit Leuven]] (KU Leuven) in [[Leuven]], in [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], [[Bielefeld University|Bielefeld]] and [[University of California, Berkeley|California]] ([[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]]). He holds doctorates in the [[social science]]s (Louvain, 1977) and in philosophy (Oxford, 1980).<ref>[http://www.uclouvain.be/en-11688.html "Philippe Van Parijs"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213751/http://www.uclouvain.be/en-11688.html |date=27 September 2007 }}, at uclouvain.be (in English)</ref>

==Career==
He is professor at the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences of the University of Louvain (UCLouvain), where he directs the [[Hoover Chair]] of Economic and Social Ethics since its creation in 1991. He was a visiting professor at [[Harvard University]]'s Department of Philosophy from 2004 to 2011, and has been a visiting professor at the [[Higher Institute of Philosophy]] of the [[Katholieke Universiteit Leuven]] since 2006, and a senior research fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, since 2011.

Van Parijs has also held visiting positions at the Universities of [[University of Amsterdam|Amsterdam]], [[University of Manchester|Manchester]], [[University of Siena|Siena]], [[Université du Québec à Montréal|Québec]] ([[Montréal]]), [[University of Wisconsin–Madison|Wisconsin]] ([[Madison, Wisconsin|Madison]]), [[University of Maine|Maine]] (Orono) and [[Aix-Marseille University|Aix-Marseille]], the [[European University Institute]] ([[Florence]]), the [[Russian Academy of Sciences]] (Moscow), the [[Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro|Federal University of Rio de Janeiro]], the [[Chinese Academy of Social Sciences]] (Beijing), the Catholic Faculties of [[Kinshasa]] (Congo), [[All Souls College, Oxford|All Souls College]] (Oxford), [[Yale University]], [[Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris|Sciences Po]] (Paris), the [[Universidad Católica del Uruguay Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga|Catholic University of Uruguay]], the [[Autonomous University of Barcelona]] and the [[École Normale Supérieure]] (Paris).

He is one of the founders of the [[Basic Income Earth Network|Basic Income European Network]] (BIEN) in 1986, which became the [[Basic Income Earth Network]] in 2004, and he chairs its International Board.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://basicincome.org/about-bien/ |title = About BIEN &#124; BIEN}}</ref> He coordinates the Ethical Forum of the [[University Foundation]]. He also coordinates the Pavia Group<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.paviagroup.be/|title=Groupe Pavia -Groep - Federale kieskring. Circonscription fédérale.|website=www.paviagroup.be}}</ref> with [[Kris Deschouwer]] and, with [[Paul De Grauwe]], the Re-Bel initiative.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rethinkingbelgium.eu/|title=Re-Bel initiative - Rethinking Belgium's institutions|website=www.rethinkingbelgium.eu}}</ref> He is a member of Belgium's [[The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium|Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts]], of the International Institute of Philosophy, and of the [[European Academy of Sciences and Arts]] and fellow of the [[British Academy]]. In 2001, he was awarded the [[Francqui Prize]], Belgium's most generous scientific prize.{{citation needed|date=April 2020}}

== Work ==

=== Basic income ===
In ''Real Freedom for All: What (if anything) can justify capitalism?''<ref>Philippe Van Parijs, Real Freedom for All, What (if anything) can justify capitalism: Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1995</ref> (1995) he argues for both the justice and feasibility of a [[Universal basic income|basic income for every citizen]]. Van Parijs asserts that it promotes the achievement of a [[real freedom]] to make choices. For example, he purports that one cannot really choose to stay at home to raise children or start a business if one cannot afford to. As proposed by Van Parijs, such freedom should be feasible through taxing the scarce, valued social good of jobs, as a form of [[income redistribution]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bidadanure|first=Juliana Uhuru|date=2019-05-11|title=The Political Theory of Universal Basic Income|journal=Annual Review of Political Science|language=en|volume=22|issue=1|pages=481–501|doi=10.1146/annurev-polisci-050317-070954|issn=1094-2939|doi-access=free}}</ref>

=== Linguistic justice ===
Another part of Van Parijs' work is about linguistic justice. In order to address the injustice arising from the privilege enjoyed by English as a global ''[[lingua franca]]'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290060830|title=A Lingua Franca as Condition for Global Justice? Philippe Van Parijs on Linguistic Justice|website=ResearchGate|language=en|access-date=2017-11-15}}</ref> he discusses a wide range of measures such as a [[language tax]]<ref>Philippe Van Parijs, [http://www.uclouvain.be/cps/ucl/doc/etes/documents/DOCH_122_%28PVP%29.pdf Europe's three language problems] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228083819/http://www.uclouvain.be/cps/ucl/doc/etes/documents/DOCH_122_(PVP).pdf |date=28 December 2013 }}, Multilingualism in Law and Politics</ref> which would be paid by English-speaking countries, a ban on the dubbing of films, and the enforcement of a linguistic territoriality principle that would protect weaker languages.<ref>Philippe Van Parijs, [http://global.oup.com/academic/product/linguistic-justice-for-europe-and-for-the-world-9780199208876 Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World], Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.</ref>

Van Parijs's work is sometimes associated with the [[September Group]] of [[analytic Marxism]], though he is not himself a Marxist.

==Honours==
*[[Ailsa McKay Lecture]], 2017<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.caledonianblogs.net/wise/2017/02/27/2nd-ailsa-mckay-annual-lecture-save-the-date/|title=WiSE Research Centre - 2nd Ailsa McKay Annual Lecture – Registration Details|website=www.caledonianblogs.net}}</ref>
*[[Francqui Prize]], 2001
* Permanent member, [[International Institute of Philosophy|Institut international de philosophie]], 1999.

==Bibliography==
Van Parijs' books include:
*''Evolutionary Explanation in the Social Sciences'' (1981)
*''Le Modèle économique et ses rivaux'' (1990)
*''Qu'est-ce qu'une société juste?'' (1991)
*''Marxism Recycled'' (1993)
*''Real Freedom for All'' (1995)
*''Sauver la solidarité'' (1995)
*''Refonder la solidarité'' (1996)
*''Solidariteit voor de XXIste eeuw'' (1997)
*''Ethique économique et sociale'' (2000, with C. Arnsperger)
*''What's Wrong with a Free Lunch?'' (2001)
*''Hacia una concepción de la justicia global'' (2002)
*''Cultural Diversity versus Economic Solidarity''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uclouvain.be/en-12569.html|title=UCL - Cultural Diversity versus Economic Solidarity|date=20 June 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130620221023/http://www.uclouvain.be/en-12569.html|archive-date=20 June 2013}}</ref> (as editor, 2004)
*''L'Allocation universelle'' (2005, with Y. Vanderborght)
*''Linguistic Justice for Europe and for the World'' (2011)
*''Just Democracy. The Rawls-Machiaveli Programme'' (2011)
*''Basic Income: A Radical Proposal for a Free Society and a Sane Economy'' (2017)

'''Festschrift in honour of Van Parijs'''
*''Arguing About Justice: Essays for Philippe Van Parijs'' (Axel Gosseries & Yannick Vanderborght eds., Presses universitaires de Louvain, 2012) was published on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213751/http://www.uclouvain.be/en-11688.html Personal homepage]
* [http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~plcdib/imprints/vanparijsinterview.html "The Need for Basic Income"], interview with [[Chris Bertram]], ''Imprints'', vol. 1, no. 3 (March 1997)
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190227043948/http://europeandme.eu/17brain/952-unconditional-basic-income No conditions attached], interview by the magazine ''Europe & Me'', July 2012

{{September group}}
{{Basic income}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Parijs, Philippe}}
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:20th-century Belgian philosophers]]
[[Category:21st-century Belgian philosophers]]
[[Category:Universal basic income activists]]
[[Category:Belgian economists]]
[[Category:Belgian political philosophers]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the European University Institute]]
[[Category:Harvard University staff]]
[[Category:Left-libertarians]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts]]
[[Category:Universal basic income writers]]
[[Category:Corresponding fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Bielefeld University alumni]]