Tools For Conviviality

Hardcover

Published Dec. 10, 2001 by Marion Boyars.

ISBN:: 978-1-84230-011-4

(1 review)

The conviviality for which noted social philosopher Ivan Illich is arguing is one in which the individual’s personal energies are under direct personal control and in which the use of tools is responsibly limited. A work of seminal importance, this book claims our attention for the urgency of its appeal, the stunning clarity of its logic and the overwhelmingly human note that it sounds.

2 editions

swannodette reviewed Tools For Conviviality by Ivan Illich

Revolutionary

5 stars

A startling encounter. I will probably need to read it second time or more, a dense work. I think perhaps when it was written it was a bit hard to swallow - but certainly now with climate change and the never ending disappointment of market oriented technological progress, I think it would give many readers pause. Not much in the way of answers or even a path to an answer - Illich himself appears to conclude that the necessary changes to societies cannot occur without the utter (inevitable) collapse of current technological societies. Unfortunately there are too few historical precedents to believe that such a collapse would lead to a convivial society over one based on terror as history has more or less shown time and time again.

Sobering.