Description
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.
Chapter
2.2 From cells to molecules
2.3 The century of the gene
3 Mechanistic social thought
3.1 Birth of the social sciences
3.2 Classical political economy
3.3 The critics of classical economics
3.5 The impasse of Cartesian economics
3.6 The machine metaphor in management
II The rise of systems thinking
4 From the parts to the whole
4.1 The emergence of systems thinking
5 Classical systems theories
5.2 General systems theory
6.1 The mathematics of classical science
6.3 Principles of nonlinear dynamics
III A new conception of life
7.1 How to characterize the living
7.2 The systems view of life
7.3 The fundamentals of autopoiesis
7.4 The interaction with the environment
7.6 Criteria of autopoiesis, criteria of life
7.8 Autopoiesis and cognition
8 Order and complexity in the living world
8.2 Emergence and emergent properties
8.3 Self-organization and emergence in dynamic systems
8.4 Mathematical patterns in the living world
9 Darwin and biological evolution
9.1 Darwin’s vision of species interlinked by a network of parenthood
9.2 Darwin, Mendel, Lamarck, and Wallace: a multifaceted interconnection
9.3 The modern evolutionary synthesis
9.5 The Human Genome Project
9.6 Conceptual revolution in genetics
Guest essay: The rise and rise of epigenetics
9.7 Darwinism and creationism
9.8 Chance, contingency, and evolution
10 The quest for the origin of life on Earth
10.1 Oparin’s molecular evolution
10.2 Contingency versus determinism in the origin of life
10.4 Laboratory approaches to minimal life
10.5 The synthetic-biology approach to the origin of life
11.3 The determinants of being human
12 Mind and consciousness
12.2 The Santiago theory of cognition
12.3 Cognition and consciousness
Guest essay: On the primary nature of consciousness
12.4 Cognitive linguistics
13 Science and spirituality
13.1 Science and spirituality: a dialectic relationship
13.2 Spirituality and religion
13.3 Science versus religion: a “dialogue of the deaf”?
13.4 Parallels between science and mysticism
13.5 Spiritual practice today
13.6 Spirituality, ecology, and education
14 Life, mind, and society
14.1 The evolutionary link between consciousness and social phenomena
14.2 Sociology and the social sciences
14.3 Extending the systems approach
14.4 Networks of communications
14.5 Life and leadership in organizations
15 The systems view of health
15.1 Crisis in healthcare
Guest essay: Placebo and nocebo responses
15.3 A systemic approach to healthcare
Guest essay: Integrative practice in healthcare and healing
IV Sustaining the web of life
16 The ecological dimension of life
16.1 The science of ecology
16.3 Ecological sustainability
17 Connecting the dots: systems thinking and the state of the world
17.1 Interconnectedness of world problems
17.2 The illusion of perpetual growth
17.3 The networks of global capitalism
17.4 The global civil society
Guest essay: Living enterprise as the foundation of a generative economy
18.2 Energy and climate change
18.3 Agroecology – the best chance to feed the world
Guest essay: Seeds of life
The Systems View of Life
：A Unifying Vision
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