Abstract

The following article is a portrait of the French sociologist, philosopher, Systems thinkers and public intellectual Edgar Morin. It aims to present the life and works of Edgar Morin to a German speaking audience. Introductory in nature, it does not claim to offer more than a concise, contemporary, and, where needed, critical summary of Edgar Morin’s main theoretical tenets. It proceeds by offering, first,abrief overview of Morin’sbiography and a loose sketch of his position in the landscape of French 20th century philosophy. Based on a close reading of Edgar Morin’s chief theoretical oeuvre, La Méthode, it subsequently reconstructshis thought in four steps, payingattention toa) to the context of Morin’s specific intellectual concerns and his new cosmological »method«, b) to his theory of nature, c) to his theory of society, and d) finally to his ethics. The profile which should emerge from this procedure is one of an intellectual who is grapplingwithawide-spanning, holistic thinking; whose working style is transdisciplinary and directed against academic specialisation; and whose philosophical concerns centre around the normativeexpectations of classical humanism. EdgarMorin is a thinker who invites us to think with him through matters of the contemporary world, and his viewpoints are herediscussed and critically evaluated with particular reference to the relevance of his thought for the ecological discourse, and for the current challenges of ›knowledge societies.‹