Alexandre Jollien


About this author

Born with cerebral palsy, Alexandre Jollien grew up in a home for the severely disabled, where, as he laconically notes, “rolling cigars” was his “professional horizon.” But then, completely by chance, he discovered philosophy, and his life was changed forever. Against all odds, he succeeded in completing secondary education and enrolled at the Université de Fribourg. While studying abroad at Trinity College, Dublin, he met his future wife, with whom he has three children. He published his first book — In Praise of Weakness — at the age of twenty-two, and has since established himself as a profound and compelling moral thinker and spiritual teacher. Not only is he the first and only congenitally severely disabled thinker in the history of philosophy, but he is also the first original philosopher to have consistently reflected on what it means to be born and live with disability not as an insurmountable obstacle but as a source of strength and creative energy.

www.alexandre-jollien.ch

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Sierre, Switzerland, in 1975 with cerebral palsy, Alexandre Jollien grew up in a home for the severely disabled, where, as he laconically notes, “rolling cigars” was his “professional horizon.” But then, completely by chance, he discovered philosophy, and his life was changed forever. Against all odds, he succeeded in completing secondary education and enrolled at the Université de Fribourg, thus escaping a future staked out for him by his caregivers. While studying abroad at Trinity College, Dublin, he met his future wife, with whom he has three children.

He published his first book — Éloge de la faiblesse / In Praise of Weakness — at the age of twenty-two, and has since established himself as a profound and compelling moral thinker and spiritual teacher. Not only is he the first and only congenitally severely disabled thinker in the history of philosophy, but he is also the first original philosopher to have consistently reflected on what it means to be born and live with disability not as an insurmountable obstacle but as a source of strength and creative energy.

A prolific writer and frequent public speaker, Alexandre Jollien has been awarded the Prix Mottart for Literature and the Prix Montyon for Ethics (both by the Académie Française). After spending three years in Seoul, South Korea, he and his family recently returned to Switzerland and currently reside in Lausanne.


www.alexandre-jollien.ch

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