Edgar Morin (1921-2026)

Edgar Morin, the French philosopher, sociologist, filmmaker and public intellectual whose work spanned nearly a century of political, cultural and scientific debate, passed away in Paris on May 29 at the age of 104.

A veteran of the French Resistance and one of the last surviving intellectuals shaped by World War II, Morin became an influential voice on subjects ranging from politics and ecology to philosophy, anthropology and epistemology. Over a career that produced countless books, he was committed to connecting different fields of knowledge and art.

Morin also made a lasting contribution to cinema through both his writings on film, including Le cinéma ou l’homme imaginaire (1956) and Les stars (1957), and his work as co-director of Chronique d'un été (1961), a seminal documentary of the cinéma vérité movement, made with Jean Rouch.