The Systems View of Life | Fritjof Capra

Entangled World

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Today on the podcast, I had the distinct honor and pleasure of speaking with Fritjof Capra. Fritjof is the lead teacher of the Capra Course and Systems View LAB. Fritjof is a scientist, educator, and activist who has written and lectured extensively about the philosophical and social implications of modern science. He was a founding director (1995-2020) of the Berkeley-based Center for Ecoliteracy and serves on the faculty of the Amana-Key executive education program in São Paulo, Brazil. He is a Fellow of Schumacher College and serves on the Council of Earth Charter International.

He is also the author of several international bestsellers. including The Tao of Physics (1975), The Turning Point (1982), and The Web of Life (1996). He is coauthor of the multidisciplinary textbook The Systems View of Life (2014).

Fritjof is the rare person who has engaged in not only a tremendous amount of research, theory and writing, but also actuation in the world through his activism and bringing ecology education into public schools.

In this episode, Fritjof talks about 4 key principles that summarize the culmination of his life’s work and what he calls the “systems view of life”:

1. Life organizes itself in networks of processes (chemical, biological, communications, etc.).


2. Life is inherently regenerative down to the molecular level.


3. Life is inherently creative.


4. Life is inherently intelligent.

We discuss how the mechanistic worldview which originated from Renee Descartes who viewed the mind (which he called the “thinking” thing) as separate from matter (which he called the “extended” thing) and which has been the dominant worldview is now finally being upended by a network-based worldview. The network worldview acknowledges that all of life is interconnected, co-evolving and complex and therefore cannot be controlled.

We explore how the mechanistic worldview is still espoused by many technologists leading AI development who view intelligence as solely residing in the brain, discounting the embodied, felt ways of knowing that reside in the body.

Ultimately, we discuss the importance of putting life at the center of everything we do, of everything that is worth doing in this time of metacrisis.

Fritjof’s Links:

https://www.fritjofcapra.net/

https://www.capracourse.net/ (Fall 2024 course starting Sept. 18, 2024)

Other Resources Mentioned:

Robert Reich

Owning Our Future by Marjorie Kelly

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

When Corporations Rule the World by David Korten

Ecological Civilization: From Emergency to Emergence by David Korten

The Social Dilemma by the Center for Humane Technology

The AI Dilemma by the Center Humane Technology

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