Summary
Morin’s 6-volume work entitled “Method”, which spans his thought and writing from 1977 to 2002, is essentially based on the concept of transdisciplinary complexity. Originally inspired by complexity theory coming from the natural and physical sciences, Morin’s thiry-five-year-long reflections provide a welcome complement to the strictly “harder” scientific work on complexity. His production stands as one of the most massive, significant works in this “complex” field, offering a direly needed analysis of complexity’s truly transdisciplinary nature, as well as an in-depth ontological and epistemological discussion on complexity.
Looking at the words “complexity” and “method”, Morin harkens back to their original derivation. “Complexity” comes from the Latin word “complexus”, or that which is interwoven. If you tear an interwoven fabric apart, the overall pattern, the interrelationships, the texture, the colors, and the connections, the images that emerge in your mind when you gaze at this fabric, the interrelated memories and ideas which it stimulates, the interaction when it is draped over something or someone, all of that is lost. Likewise, the word “method” originally signified path or journey in Latin, and came from the earlier Greek word for “pursuit”; Morin would like us to understand that the method comes from the (re)search, from the quest itself, and not the other way around.
“Method” opens by discussing the relationship between order and chaos, underlining the crucial role of emergence, uncertainty and unpredictability in approaching the complexity of life. In order to emphasize the importance of considering the dynamic aspects of reality, he evokes the idea of ongoing processes and incessant change by preferring words beginning with the prefix “re”: rethinking, reframing, reorganization, reformulation, etc. He refers widely to systems theory, but is not interested in attempting to draw a “map” of its cognitive/ theoretical geography, as many other have done. The aspect of system and cybernetic theories that most interest Morin is the development of a transversal approach to thinking that will allow people to overstep the specialized boundaries of disciplinary fields, unifying rather than dividing patterns of thought and theory. This is what led him to design a personalized interpretation of systems theory and of all the theories related to information, communication, and cybernetics, with the purpose of connecting the many dimensions of human knowledge, inquiry and curiosity. His concept of connectedness leads him even further, to insist that every study undertaken by a professional involves other aspects of life other than the professional area: one’s interests, travels, health, habits, beliefs, personal relationships, economic status, and so on. The illusory idea of intellectual objectivity detached from other sectors of life, the disembodiment of the subjective, is deliberately challenged by Morin, in his insistence on breaking down the academic front of aloof intelligence, which has so often concealed emotional immaturity, dogmatism, and a generous dose of narcissism among intellectuals, and in his willingness to expose his own personal idiosyncracies and life experiences to his colleagues, students and readers along with his academic innovations and intuitions.
He develops his “method” through four different approaches, as he himself explains: “Our method seeks to envelop the phenomenon (observation), to recognize the forces within it (praxis), to provoke it at strategic points (intervention), to penetrate it by individual contact (interview), to question action, speech, and things. Each of these methods poses the fundamental methodological problem: the relationship between the research worker and the subject”. This relationship cannot be divided into a subject-object dichotomy, as there is no escaping the intersubjective nature of human beings, thus the object of every inquiry is simultaneously subject, and a dual approach must be taken, calling for detachment and objectivity along with participation and sympathy.
Complex Thought in, in fact, calls for a reframing of the concept of opposing dualities such as unity and diversity, order and disorder, unity and multiplicity, the one and the many. Human experience cannot merely be divided into interior and exterior, individual and collective sectors of experience and behavior seen from cultural and systemic perspectives, unless we think through the relationships and interactions between all of these, between brain and mind, individual and culture, and so on. Morin warns us against the urge to enclose life into the order and coherence of a system, against the attempt to capture reality within an idea, against idealization, rationalization, and the temptation to explain everything, removing all unknowns and mysteries.
Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
“Method” describes in great depth the paradigm that is now substituting the former concepts of order and certainty that were the cardinal principles of reality. The universe we live in is complex, ambiguous, pluralistic. The pervasiveness of error, illusion, incompleteness, uncertainty and disorder are reflected in Morin’s tetrad of Order/ Disorder/ Interaction/ Organization. The challenge we are facing is how to integrate this uncertainty and incompleteness into our lives. According to Morin, this can be accomplished by retaining an open and ongoing habit of critical self-reflection, remembering that the observer is integral part of the observation, learning from other approaches and perspectives, and pursuing knowledge in the moment were are living, including its inevitable uncertainties, risks, and opportunities.
This insistence on integrating the seeker into his search, the observer into his observations, the inquirer into his inquiry is both an epistemological and ethical position, and is evidenced in his philosophy of science and ethics that he develops in the last two volumes of Method. Constant vigilance and self-criticism, which he terms “psychic culture”, is the only way to avoid the dangers of projection, denial and “group think”, and is his remedy against drifting towards totalization, normalization and self-deception, by keeping in mind Adorno’s admonition that “totality is untruth”. It serves to warn us that knowledge can be misused for self-interest and other selfish purposes, but that continuous self-examination can help us to cohabit with the uncertainty that is an integral part of our lives and thinking. Morin reminds us that thought is not an superior, abstract phenomena that can exist separately from our emotions, our psyche and the planet we live on.
Morin demonstrates that the complexity which pervades our lives requires us to recognize and embrace interconnectedness, uncertainty, disorder and contradiction. Through transdisciplinary, complex thought we can create critical conceptual methods for approaching complexity from the inside, which is where we find ourselves, and we can begin to cohabit creatively with the emergence of unexpected and unpredictable phenomena.
