Edgar Morin has passed away.

Friends had informed us about Edgar’s hospitalisation in Paris. On Friday, 29 May 2026, we had to come to terms with the message of his death. On 8 July 2026, he would have completed his 105th birthday.

Le Monde was the first newspaper to publish an obituary on the morning of 30 May 2026: “French sociologist, philosopher and intellectual provocateur Edgar Morin has died aged 104”, a 25 minutes read (Le Monde). APA, the Austrian Press Agency, followed with a notice some hours later: “Jahrhundertdenker Edgar Morin im Alter von 104 Jahren gestorben – Der Philosoph und Soziologe Edgar Morin war einer der einflussreichsten französischen Intellektuellen der Gegenwart” (Der Standard).

Edgar Morin has been a Member of our GSIS Advisory Committee.

Edgar Morin inspired our work since I came across his work and himself and became friends with him together with others in the late 2000s. Helena Knyazeva, today Member of our Advisory Committee too, and me paid homage to Edgar’s 85th birthday, Helena with an article on “Master of the complex thinking” and myself with an article on “The fallacies of blind intelligence”, published in 2007. In 2010, Rainer E. Zimmermann and me could present the first German translation of Edgar’s Volume 1 of his opus magnum: “Die Methode: Die Natur der Natur”. (Browse here for further activities concerning Edgar Morin.)

Now that Edgar has gone physically, he will still inspire us ideationally. Since our translational work of his Volume 2 needed a pause, we have been working on Volume 6 “Die Methode: Ethik”, publication planned for 2027. Also, we are just publishing the German edition of the French booklet “Convivialisme ou barbarie”: “Das dritte konvivialistische Manifest – Konvivialismus oder Barbarei”. It is edited by Die konvivialistische Internationale and is based upon Edgar’s ideas (see our current projects). And I am sure, we will find ever new common ground.

Edgar’s legacy is his meaningful life – a role model for all amidst the crisis of human evolution. In his perspective, humanity is objectively bound by a common destiny: it can go extinct or start flourishing. Which path will it take? For Edgar, this depended on building up a planetary consciousness and conscience to become a united subject of its own. Whether that will succeed, however, remains to be seen. For the time being, these words of his hold true: “I doubt humanity even as I believe in it” (Le Monde, 25 April 2026).

Wolfgang Hofkirchner