A Unifying Vision-Prof. Luisi
The Auroville Campus Initiative -a presentation on; THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF LIFE: A UNIFYING VISION
By Prof. Pier Luigi Luisi Prof. Emeritus of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland. Dec 29 2015
Abstract
The systems thinking emphasizes that the properties of a system composed by several components are due to the interactions of the components. The network of interactions is the major key, we go from the isolated components to their mutual web of links. Systems of this kind are under our common observation, for example complex machines, social structures, cities and the architecture complexes. Interdependence is the major key to understanding reality to enrich and complement with the new concepts of modern epistemology, particularly those coming from complexity theory. Thus, the notion of self-organization, the main aim of the recent book by Capra and Luisi (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2014), are presented in some detail. We are probably at the limit of time for a healthy solution, but solutions are in principle still possible. On these we have to work.
BIO PROF. LUISI
Prof. Luisi, after his graduation at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy, made his academic career at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETHZ), Switzerland as chemistry professor. Since 2003, he has been working at the University of Rome3, Italy.
His research focussed in the origin of life, and the synthetic biology of minimal living cells. Author of over 600 reviewed papers, and a dozens of books, which include The emergence of life, for Cambridge Univ.Press, 2006, now at the second edition; Recently, the book with Fritjof Capra, The systems view of life, for Cambridge univ. Press, 2014. He has been associated from the start (1987) with the Mind and Life Institute, see his 2009 book Mind and Life, for Columbia Univ.Press, 2009.
At the ETHZ, he created (1985) the Cortona-week, an interdisciplinary residential week for graduate students, who are asked to work with artists, psychologists, religious leaders, to open up their horizon and foster a new generation of world leaders with a more integrated and balanced view of life. One such Cortona-week was done in India, see www.cortona-india.org.