Edgar Morin, everyone knows the name, the face, the commitments sometimes, but what about the work? Neither a philosopher, nor a sociologist, nor an anthropologist, Edgar Morin is all this at the same time. He is an omnivorous thinker, passionate about all knowledge, all disciplines,
fleeing the compartmentalization that mutilates the knowledge of the human being. Edgar Morin’s work is voluminous and protean and, seen from a distance, resembles that of a gluttonous jack-of-all-trades. He first started many projects in anthropology (essay on death), then in sociology (mass culture, youth, sociology of the present), cinema, rumours, the nature
of the USSR, before devoting himself to his great project: the theory of complexity. Because behind the apparent eclecticism, there is a profound unity: a complex approach to the human being – torn between various forces that unite and confront each other in him. This book underlines the coherence of a thought that sprouts, is born and grows throughout a century marked by historical upheavals, scientific discoveries, wars and crises.

Contributors : Jean-François Dortier, Louisa Yousfi, Éric Macé, Emmanuel Lemieux.

Table of contents

Itinerary
Edgar Morin. The adventure of a thought Louisa Yousfi and Jean-François Dortier
Itinerary. An extraordinary thought Jean-François Dortier
Chronology. The abyss or metamorphosis Jean-François Dortier
History has conquered the Universe. Selected Texts

The Method
The complexity at work Louisa Yousfi
Nature as a system Louisa Yousfi
Life: between order and chaos Louisa Yousfi
The nature of ideas. Selected Texts
The many faces of humanity Louisa Yousfi

Sociology
The advent of mass culture Louisa Yousfi
The time of revenge Eric Macé
The sociology of the present: desecrated objectivity Louisa Yousfi
The cinema or the fantasized double Louisa Yousfi

Living
In the head of Edgar M. Jean-François Dortier
Changing life. Interview with Edgar Morin Interview with Jean-François Dortier

Politics
The Palestinian cause and the Jewish question Louisa Yousfi
The eternal sceptic Emmanuel Lemieux
For a crisology. Selected Texts

Concepts and books
Complexity Primer Louisa Yousfi
Bibliography