Edgar Morin, one of France’s most emblematic public intellectuals and a former member of the Resistance during the Second World War who devoted his life to promoting critical thinking and fighting intolerance, has died aged 104, his wife announced on Saturday.
'He is the grandfather of all French people and the memory of the 20th century,' wrote the left-wing daily Libération in a 2021 profile of the elegant philosopher, a lover of hats and silk ties.
On Saturday morning, French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute on X to the memory of this 'universal mind' and 'humanism personified'.
For former president François Hollande, Morin 'chose, throughout his long life, the paths of intellectual freedom. Stumbling at times, always correcting himself.'
A measure of his undeniable intellectual appeal, tributes to Morin were pouring in on Saturday morning from the right as well as the far left.
