Who is Edgar Morin

Edgar Morin is one of France's leading contemporary philosophers, an emeritus research director at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). His large body of work is characterised by a concern for knowledge that is neither hampered nor pigeonholed, capable of grasping the complexity of reality, of observing the singular while placing it within the whole. In this spirit: he has conducted research into contemporary sociology (L'Esprit du temps, published by Grasset, 1962-1976...) he has sought to understand anthropo-social complexity by incorporating the biological dimension and the imaginary dimension (L'Homme et la mort, Seuil, 1951, Le Cinema ou l'Homme imaginaire, Minuit, 1956, Le Paradigme perdu: la nature humaine, Seuil, 1973...) he has set out a diagnostic analysis and an ethic for the fundamental problems of our age (Pour sortir du XXe siecle, Nathan, 1981, Penser l'Europe, Gallimard, 1987, Terre-Patrie, Seuil, 1993, Une politique de civilisation, with Sami Nair, Arlea, 1997) finally, over a period of twenty years (1977-1991), he has worked on a Method (Seuil) that would enable a reform of our way of thinking. La Complexite humaine (Flammarion, 1994) combines key concepts from the work of Edgar Morin (excerpts from his main works), for an introduction to his "complex thought". Most of these works have been translated (or are being translated) into Chinese, English, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish...

Anne Rapin, Label France nº 28, July 1997