Jean Robert

Abstract

These brief notes are intended as a testimony about Jean Robert, the caring friend and the sharp, brilliant, modest—perhaps too modest—thinker. I met him for the first time during the seminar organized by the School for Peace of the Province of Lucca (Italy) on July 13 and 14, 2003, to remember Ivan Illich six months after his death. It was in Lucca that Illich gave his last public lecture, on October 2, 2001, and the presence at the commemorative event of Jean Robert, who had been a great friend and an intelligent interpreter of Illich, was considered indispensable.