The Systems View of Life with Fritjof Capra
Sun, 11 May 2014
I'm just back from a five-day course at Schumacher College in Devon with writer Fritjof Capra. The subject of the course was Fritjof's new book, co-authored with Pier Luigi Luisi, The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision.
The book builds on Fritjof Capra's earlier work on the importance of 'systemic thinking' and the urgent need for a global shift in perception from a mechanistic world view to a more holistic one. Written as a textbook for students, systems thinking is placed in a full historic and contemporary context. There is a particular emphasis on Maturana and Varela's theory on the self-generating nature of living things, often called the theory of "autopoiesis". Like Maturana and Varela's book The Tree of Life, Capra and Luisi show how autopoietic theory can be applied to all levels of living systems (from single-celled organisms, to multicellular life, consciousness and social systems). Unlike Maturana and Varela's book (which is still excellent) it presents the theory in a way that is easy to grasp in a single read. This is an achievement in its own right! Guest essays - including one by Animate Earth author and Schumacher College faculty member Stephan Harding - are used to provide even more context. A large section on "Sustaining the Web of Life" shows how we could use the concepts discussed to address the major environmental and social issues currently facing us. There is an extensive bibliography for those wanting ready more about any of the topics discussed.
Fritjof Capra's first book was the Tao of Physics, and if you have only read this then this new book really should go next your reading list - it easily matches the Tao of Physics's importance and will bring you up to date with almost 40 years of Capra's thinking. If you have followed Fritjof Capra's work since the Tao of Physics, then this book is on familiar territory, but its level of coherence and clarity will give you a fresh take on the systems world-view - and the practical solutions he gives will give you (at least some) confidence that our planet could have a future with us on it.
I've put a few pictures from the course on my Flickr page.
