Edgar Morin is a French philosopher and sociologist who was born in Paris on July 8, 1921 under the original name Edgar Nahoum. He is of Judeo-Spanish (Sefardi) origin. He is known for the transdisciplinarity of his works, in that he covers a wide range of interests and dismisses the conventional boundaries between academic disciplines.

Philosophical development

Morin's epistemological work can be seen as "revolutionary" because of his attempt to reconsider the relation-triangle: ideology-politics-science through what he calls "complexity". The "complex" being here not the opposite of simple but a "method" which "respects the mystery" of the universe knowing that "the simple is just, always, something simplified" by someone. This titanic effort can be discovered in his six volume masterwork La Méthode, not merely a scientific project but also a complex message from the heart of the 20th century.

According to Alfonso Montuori (in "Edgar Morin: A partial introduction", see below) "The 5 volume Method is perhaps Morin’s culminating work, a remarkable and seemingly inexhaustible treasure trove of insights, reflection, and a real manual for those who are interested in broadening the nature of human inquiry. Drawing on cybernetics, information theory, systems theory, but also integrating all the work he has done before, from the work on imagination in his research on movies to his profound reflections on death, Method integrates Morin’s journey and provides the reader with an alternative to the traditional assumptions and method of inquiry of our time.".