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Over the past thirty years, a new systemic conception of life has emerged at the forefront of science. New emphasis has been given to complexity, networks, and patterns of organisation, leading to a novel kind of 'systemic' thinking. This volume integrates the ideas, models, and theories underlying the systems view of life into a single coherent framework. Taking a broad sweep through history and across scientific disciplines, the authors examine the appearance of key concepts such as autopoiesis, dissipative structures, social networks, and a systemic understanding of evolution. The implications of the systems view of life for health care, management, and our global ecological and economic crises are also discussed. Written primarily for undergraduates, it is also essential reading for graduate students and researchers interested in understanding the new systemic conception of life and its implications for a broad range of professions - from economics and politics to medicine, psychology and law.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction: paradigms in science and society
• Part I The Mechanistic World View
• 1 The Newtonian world-machine
• 2 The mechanistic view of life
• 3 Mechanistic social thought
• Part II The Rise of Systems Thinking
• 4 From the parts to the whole
• 5 Classical systems theories
• 6 Complexity theory
• Part III A New Conception of Life
• 7 What is life?
• 8 Order and complexity in the living world
• 9 Darwin and biological evolution
• 10 The quest for the origin of life on Earth
• 11 The human adventure
• 12 Mind and consciousness
• 13 Science and spirituality
• 14 Life, mind, and society
• 15 The systems view of health
• Part IV Sustaining the Web of Life
• 16 The ecological dimension of life
• 17 Connecting the dots: systems thinking and the state of the world
• 18 Systemic solutions
• Bibliography
• Index

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Publishers Weekly Review

Capra (The Tao of Physics) and Luisi ambitiously offer an intellectual history of much of the social and natural sciences as they argue that the underlying metaphor for how we see and understand the world needs to change from that of "a machine to understanding it as a network." They argue that this can only be accomplished if we take a systems view of nature and the role humans play in it; they provide insightful, if abbreviated, summaries of the evolution of thought within a range of disciplines like natural philosophy, political economy, mathematics, physics, biology, information theory, and theology. Capra and Luisi rely heavily on the difficult concept of "autopoiesis theory," and, given the breadth of their work, make some sweeping generalizations-which remain open to critique by their peers. For example, they claim that altruism is "widely displayed at the social level in the formation of groups of animals," a statement many biologists would find problematic. Similarly, they assert that "ecological literacy has an important spiritual dimension," and while that might be accurate for some, it is certainly not universal. Their action plan for social transformation is largely a summary of the work of Lester Brown, Amory Lovins, and Jeremy Rifkin. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

CHOICE Review

This dense volume attempts to integrate many disparate topics, including biology, sociology, climate change, spirituality, philosophy, etc., pointing out how an understanding of emergent properties can change one's perspective about many of these. Although Capra (Schumacher College, UK; Center for Ecoliteracy, Berkeley, California) and Luisi (Roma Tre Univ., Italy) state that the book was "written primarily for undergraduates," many would have a hard time navigating the vocabulary and the theoretical and historical concepts needed to fully understand the ideas. The authors point out that a more holistic view of life on Earth is needed to address serious problems such as climate change and attempt to outline the path toward that more holistic view. In the end, however, this humancentric approach blurs the concept that all life on this planet is related. Understanding the roles of other life- forms means that humans must also understand that they are not the only important species on the planet, and this book, with its intense focus on human life and human systems, may not contribute much to that critical understanding. It will help readers realize the importance of emergent properties in aiding understanding of the planet, but the breadth of topics covered here makes finding that focus hard. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and above. --David Alan Rintoul, Kansas State University