Étienne Balibar is a French Marxist philosopher, who first rose to prominence as one of Louis Althusser's pupils at the École Normale Supérieure. Balibar was a participant in Althusser's seminar on Marx's Capital, which resulted in a book called Lire le Capital (Reading Capital) coauthored by Althusser and his students, among whom Althusser considered Balibar's contribution the foremost.

After Althusser's fall from grace and death, Balibar quickly became the leading exponent of French Marxist philosophy.

Balibar is known in France as much for his famous actress daughter, Jeanne Balibar , as for his philosophy, however.