Journalist philosopher who brought existential philosophy together with Marxism: Who is André Gorz?

He left his mark on the 20th century with his views on individual autonomy, revolution, the liberation of daily life and free time from the field of economics, his anti-economics-production-utilitarianism ideas, and his defense of "voluntary simplicity" against poverty.

(1923, Vienna - 2007, Vosnon) is one of the pseudonyms used by the French philosopher and journalist Gérard Horst in his works.

After taking part in Jean-Paul Sartre's team at Les Temps Modernes magazine, he worked at France's famous weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur for twenty years.

He tended to question the agenda of the future in his philosophical and theoretical works, as well as in his research-review articles published in the magazine. Gorz, whose intellectual adventure progressed on the axis of philosophy, critical theory, and social criticism, ranged from Marxism to phenomenology, from Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism to the thoughts of Ivan Illich and Marcuse, and became one of the leading theorists of political ecology and "non-growth".

He co-founded Le Nouvel Observateur weekly in 1964. A supporter of Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist version of Marxism after the Second World War, he became in the aftermath of the May '68 student riots more concerned with political ecology.

He left his mark on the 20th century with his views on individual autonomy, revolution, the liberation of daily life and free time from the field of economics, his anti-economics-production-utilitarianism ideas, and his defense of "voluntary simplicity" against poverty.

Life story

He is also known as Michel Bosquet, which is the pseudonym he uses in his writings. He is a French philosopher born in Vienna. Gorz, who is also a journalist, was the founder of the weekly newspaper Le Nouvel Observateur in 1964.

After World War II, he combined Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialism with Marxism and became its advocate. After the events of May 1968, he became interested in political ecology. He took part in the new left movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

He was born in Vienna in 1923 as the child of a Jewish father and a Catholic mother. Although his family did not have a very strong sense of religious and national identity; The anti-Semitism movement of the period caused his father to become a Catholic in 1930. When World War II started, his mother sent him to a Catholic institute to protect him from German militarism. He graduated from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Federal Technical School of Lausanne) in 1945 and graduated as a chemical engineer.

He met Jean-Paul Sartre in 1946. He was greatly influenced by the philosophies of existentialism and phenomenology. While working as a journalist, he became very close to Jean-Paul Sartre and combined existentialism and Marxism.

The Last Letter, written by the French writer Andre Gorz to Dorine, his lover, his life partner, and the meaning of his life, is one of the most meaningful efforts made to reconstruct the story of a lover. Andre Gorz's 'Last Letter' is like the text of a lifelong contract. It is the sad story of a fifty-eight-year-old love affair with all its sorrows and troubles. Gorz and Dorine wrote together, lived together, and existed together. The husband and wife make an incredible decision during Dorine's long illness. If one of them dies, the other will join the last journey in the same way, so that they will never be separated. And so the necessity of living in the absence of the other will not be endured. In an age where the concept of love, like everything else, has been emptied of its essence and turned into an object of consumption, Gorz's 'Last Letter' appears before us as a cry of hope and even a cry of rebellion. A scream that touches people's hearts.

The Last Letter, a sad love story, begins with these lines: “Soon you will be eighty-two years old. You've lost six centimeters in height, you weigh at most forty-five kilos, and you're still beautiful, attractive, and desirable. We have lived together for fifty-eight years and I love you more than ever.”