Complex Thought
Complex thought (Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.) is a philosophical and epistemological framework developed by the French sociologist and philosopher Edgar Morin. It represents a critique of reductionist, compartmentalized thinking — what Morin calls the "paradigm of simplification" — and advocates an approach that recognizes the interconnected, multidimensional, and uncertain nature of reality.[1][2] The word complexity is used in the sense of its Latin etymology complexus, "that which is woven together".[1]
Origin
Morin began developing the ideas behind complex thought during the 1960s, and elaborated the framework over the following decades, most fully in his six-volume work La Méthode (1977–2004).[3] An early formulation of the term pensée complexe appears in his 1982 book Science avec conscience, where he describes the aim of his search for method not as a single unifying principle of all knowledge, but as a way of indicating "the emergences of a complex thought" that allows science and philosophy to intercommunicate through "dialogical loops".[4]
Core principles
Beyond the notions of organization, information, and order-from-disorder that Morin draws from systems theory, cybernetics, and information theory, complex thought adds three principles that are particular to it:[1]
- Dialogical principle – the association of two notions that are simultaneously complementary and antagonistic yet inseparable (for example, order and disorder, or the way life continually carries death within it).[1]
- Recursive principle (organizational recursion) – a generative loop in which products and effects are themselves producers and causes of what produces them (for example, individuals produce society through their interactions, while society in turn produces the individuals).[1]
- Hologrammatic principle – not only is the part contained in the whole, but the whole is also contained in the part (for example, the entire genetic heritage is present in each cell of an organism, and a society's language, culture, and norms are present within each of its members).[1][5]
System, whole and part
A central illustration of complex thought is Morin's treatment of the relationship between a system, its whole, and its parts. Drawing on systems theory, he holds that "the whole is more than the sum of its parts" because organization produces emergent qualities that do not exist in the isolated components — for example, the liquid properties of water, or a living being's capacity to reproduce, repair itself, and seek nourishment. At the same time, "the whole is less than the sum of its parts", because the organization of the whole can inhibit or forbid qualities proper to the parts, as when social constraints repress an individual's aspirations.[5][1]
Relation to polycrisis
In their 1993 book Terre-Patrie ("Homeland Earth"), Morin and Anne Brigitte Kern introduced the term polycrisis to describe a set of interrelated, mutually reinforcing crises. They argued that there is "no single vital problem, but many vital problems", and that it is the "complex intersolidarity" of these problems, antagonisms, and uncontrolled processes that constitutes the principal crisis of the planet.[6][7] The concept, a direct application of complex thought, was later repopularised in 2016 by then European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.[7]
Major work
The framework is developed primarily in Morin's six-volume work La Méthode (The Method), published between 1977 and 2004, in which he sets out a transdisciplinary method of cognition emphasizing the interconnectedness and mutual dependence of all phenomena.[8][3]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Morin, Edgar (2005). Introduction à la pensée complexe. Points / Essais. 534. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. ISBN 978-2-7578-4200-3. OCLC 894403676. Unknown parameter
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- ↑ Aït Abdelmalek, Ali (2010). Edgar Morin, sociologue de la complexité : une méthode pour dégager de nouveaux savoirs. Les panseurs sociaux. Rennes: Éditions Apogée. ISBN 978-2-84398-360-3. OCLC 705660965. Search this book on
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Dodeler, Nadia Lazzari; Albert, Marie-Noëlle; Tremblay, Diane-Gabrielle (2023). "Simplicité et complexité des crises à la lumière du paradigme de la complexité d'Edgar Morin". Revue Interventions économiques (69). doi:10.4000/interventionseconomiques.23151.
- ↑ Morin, Edgar (1982). Science avec conscience. Paris: Fayard. Search this book on
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Morin, Edgar (7 November 2014). Les paradoxes de la complexité : système, tout, partie (video). YouTube.
- ↑ Morin, Edgar; Kern, Anne Brigitte (1993). Terre-Patrie. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. ISBN 978-2-02-019547-9 Check
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- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Beneath the Polycrisis Is the Singular Dilemma of Humanity Called Capitalism: The Thirty-Seventh Newsletter (2023)". Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. 14 September 2023.
- ↑ Morin, Edgar (1977–2004). La Méthode. 1–6. Paris: Éditions du Seuil. Search this book on
Further reading
- Morin, Edgar (2008). On Complexity. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. ISBN 978-1-57273-801-7 Check
|isbn=value: checksum (help). Search this book on - Morin, Edgar (2007). "Restricted complexity, general complexity". Worldviews, Science and Us: Philosophy and Complexity. Singapore: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-270-548-8. Search this book on
- Morin, Edgar (2008). La complexité humaine. Champs / Essais. 809. Paris: Flammarion. ISBN 978-2-08-121876-5. OCLC 253376662. Search this book on
External links
- Complex Thought on the English Wikipedia
- Pensée complexe – French Wikipedia article
- Pensée complexe (Q3374849) on Wikidata
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