François Ewald

François Robert Ewald ( born April 29, 1946) is a French philosopher and sociologist. He is Professor of Insurance at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers and director of the Ecole nationale d'assurances. His research activities are concerned in particular with the risk and the philosophy of risk.

He became internationally known as an assistant to Michel Foucault at the Collège de France. Later he published together with Danief Defert a copy of Foucault's writings and, together with Alessandro Fontana Foucault's lectures at the Collège de France. His career as a political intellectual led him here from a radical Marxist in May 68 to the French employers' federation MEDEF, as the intellectual standard-bearer he is. Since 2006, he has been awarded the Legion of Honor.

Publications

• L' Etat providence (1986 ), published in German as The precautionary state, Suhrkamp 1993
• Le Principe de precaution (2001, 2008)