On Complexity (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences)

In this volume of key essays Morin turns his attention to the technical and philosophical underpinnings of complexity theory and applies it to a wide-ranging number of issues. These essays will certainly stimulate the critical debate within complexity circles, but is also essential reading for anybody interested in our complex world and how to live in it.

Contents: Foreword: Edgar Morin's Path of Complexity, Alfonso Montuori. BLIND INTELLIGENCE. Becoming Aware. The Pathology of Knowing, Blind Intelligence. The Need for Complex Thought. COMPLEX PATTERN AND DESIGN. Indo-America. Systems Theory. Open Systems. Information/Organization. Organization. Self-organization. Complexity. Subject and Object. Coherence and Epistemological Opening. Scienza Nuova. For a Unity of Science. Integration of the Realities Banished by Classical Science. Beyond Classical Either/Or Alternatives. The Paradigmatic Turning Point. THE PARADIGM OF COMPLEXITY. The Paradigm of Simplicity. Order and Disorder in the Universe. Self-organization. Autonomy. Complexity and completeness. Reason, rationality and rationalization. The Necessity of Macro-concepts. Three Principles. Toward Complexity. COMPLEXITY AND ACTION. Action Is Also a Wager. Action Escapes our Intentions. The Non-trivial Machine. Preparing for the Unexpected. COMPLEXITY AND THE ENTERPRISE. Three Causalities. From Self-organization to Self-eco-organization. To Live and Make a Deal with Disorder. Strategy, Program, and Organization. Complementary and Antagonistic Relations. The Necessity for a Lived Solidarity. ON THE NOTION OF THE SUBJECT, translated by Sean M. Kelly. THE EPISTEMOLOGY OF COMPLEXITY, translated by Sean M. Kelly. Appendix 1: The Concept of System, translated by Sean M. Kelly. Appendix 2: A New Science of Autonomy. Notes. Author Index

Philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin, born in 1921, is one of France's leading contemporary thinkers. His large body of work is characterized by a concern for knowledge capable of grasping the complexity of reality and of observing the singular while placing it within the whole. We need to understand the nature of being human, Morin says. However, first we must discover that "the treasure of human unity is human diversity and that the treasure of human diversity is human unity". He presents his thinking on education in La tête bien faite, Relier les connaissances. His book Seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future (2000) has been translated into many languages. 

Edgar Morin has concentrated on developing a method that can meet the challenge of the complexity of our world and reform thinking, preconditions for confronting all fundamental, global problems. His numerous publications include  the six volumes of Method (1977-2004), On Complexity, Homeland Earth, California Journal, Vidal and His Family, Cinema and the Imaginary Man, Pour sortir du XXème siècle, Autocritique, New Trends in the Study of Mass Communications, Homeland Earth, La Voie. Morin has been translated into many languages, including Chinese, English, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. 

Morin has received honorary doctorates in subjects ranging from political science to psychology and sociology from universities in 27 countries in the world and holds an itinerant UNESCO Chair in Complex Thought. Today he is recognized as perhaps the pre-eminent planetary thinker of our time.