Edgar Morin – Kosmologe der Komplexität. Porträt eines transdisziplinären Intellektuellen
Edgar Morin – Kosmologe der Komplexität. Porträt eines transdisziplinären Intellektuellen
Abstract
The following article is a portrait of the French sociologist, philosopher, Systems thinkers and public intellectual Edgar Morin. It aims to present the life and works of Edgar Morin to a German-speaking audience. Introductory in nature, it does not claim to offer more than a concise, contemporary, and, where needed, critical summary of Edgar Morin’s main theoretical tenets. It proceeds by offering, first, a brief overview of Morin’s biography and a loose sketch of his position in the landscape of French 20th century philosophy. Based on a close reading of Edgar Morin’s chief theoretical oeuvre, La Méthode, it subsequently reconstructs his thought in four steps, paying attention to a) to the context of Morin’s specific intellectual concerns and his new cosmological »method«, b) to his theory of nature, c) to his theory of society, and d) finally to his ethics. The profile which should emerge from this procedure is one of an intellectual who is grappling with a wide-spanning, holistic thinking; whose working style is transdisciplinary and directed against academic specialisation; and whose philosophical concerns centre around the normative expectations of classical humanism. Edgar Morin is a thinker who invites us to think with him through matters of the contemporary world, and his viewpoints are here discussed and critically evaluated with particular reference to the relevance of his thought for the ecological discourse, and for the current challenges of ›knowledge societies.‹
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Creative Commons - Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen
Creative Commons - Namensnennung - Weitergabe unter gleichen Bedingungen
Keywords:
Systems TheoryEcologyKnowledge SocietyCybernetic HegelianismPhilosophy of Nature