Bio: (1942-) French philosopher. During his studies at the École normale supérieure, Étienne Balibar became a follower of Althusser and collaborated with him on the book Reading Capital (1965) edited by Althusser. Balibar taught at universities Paris X-Nanterre, California Irvine, Kingston, and Columbia. He is mainly concerned with Marxist philosophy and moral and political philosophy. In his book Race, Nation and Class (trans. 1991), he presents a negative critique of the concept of the nation-state, calling nations "fictitious ethnicities". Lately, he has been paying significant attention to the European Union in his works, which he views as a failed political project led by the ruling techno-structures. Instead of such an EU, he advocates building an alterglobalist Europe.

Main works

Lire le Capital (1965);

Cinq Etudes du Matérialisme Historique (1974);

Sur La Dictature du Prolétariat (1976);

Spinoza et la politique (1985);

Race, Nation, Classe (1988);

Écrits pour Althusser (1991);

La crainte des masses (1997);

John Locke, Identité et différence - L'invention de la conscience (1998);

Nous, citoyens d’Europe? Les frontières, l’État, le peuple (2001);

L'Europe, l'Amérique, la Guerre: Réflexions sur la médiation européenne (2003);

Europe, Constitution, Frontière (2005);

Violence et Civilité (2010);  

Saeculum: Culture, religion, idéologie (2012);

Europe, Crise et fin ? (2016a);

Des Universels. Essais et conférences (2016b).

Works translated into English:

Reading Capital (1970, in French 1965);

On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1977, in French 1976);

Race, Nation, Class (1991, in French 1988);

We, the People of Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship (2004, in French 2001);

Violence and Civility: On the Limits of Political Philosophy (2016, in French 2010);

Identity And Difference: John Locke And The Invention Of Consciousness (2013, in French 1998);

From Extreme Violence to the Problem of Civility: A Selection from Violence and Civility: On Universals: Constructing and Deconstructing Community (2020, in French 2016b).