The Systems View of the World: A Holistic Vision for Our Time

Quantity in Basket:none Code: 1-57273-053-6 Price:$20.95 Title: The Systems View of the World Sub-title: A Holistic Vision for Our Time Author(s): Ervin Laszlo Publish Date: 1996 Format: Paper

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There is more to science than observation, experiment and mathematical formulas: There is also an implicit and vitally important view of the world. This book is the fruit of over three decades of research by Ervin Laszlo, foremost systems scientist and integrative thinkier; it is a clear and comprehensive statement of what the new sciences tell us about living nature, the universe, and ourselves. Understanding the meaning behind the complex formulas of scientists is more important today than ever before: The holistic and integrative revolution at the end of the century is as rapid and profound as the Einsteinian and quantum revolution was at its beginning. Physicists, cosmologists, biologists, ecologists, and cognitive scientists, together with chaos theorists and cyberneticians, are discovering consistency in nature; the basic and universal laws of evolution and self-organization. Their students project a view of the world that is not mechanistic and atomistic: It is organic and holistic--a view of dynamic wholes, self-creative systems. Grasping the contours of this view is to come to understand the world as it is now discovered by leading-edge scientists. This book is part of the essential literacy of our age. Contents: Preface. THE ATOMISTIC VIEW AND THE SYSTEMS VIEW. Why Science Shifts its Sights. The Rise of the Systems Sciences. A Contrast of Worldviews. WHAT IS A SYSTEM? THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF NATURE. Proposition One: Natural Systems Are Wholes with Irreducible Properties. Proposition Two: Natural Systems Maintain Themselves in a Changing Environment. Proposition Three: Natural Systems Create Themselves in Response to Self-Creativity in Other Systems. Proposition Four: Natural Systems are Coordinating Interfaces in Nature's Holarchy. THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF OURSELVES. Our Cosmic Origins. Our Place in the Universe. Consciousness. Culture. The Nature of Value. The Question of Norms. Determinism and Freedom. A Role for Religion. SELECTED WRITINGS ON EVOLUTION AND SOCIETY. Index.