DOCSLIB.ORG

Understanding Henri Lefebvre

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Understanding Henri Lefebvre Understanding Henri Lefebvre Theory and the Possible Stuart Elden continuum LONDON • NEW YORK Continuum The Tower Building, 15 East 26th Street 11 York Road New York London SE1 7NX NY 10010 www.continuumbooks.com © Stuart Elden 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 0-8264-7002-5 (HB) 0-8264-7003-3 (PB) Typeset by Refinecatch Ltd, Bungay Suffolk Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall Contents Acknowledgements v Introduction: Henri Lefebvre 1901-91 1 1 Rethinking Marxism 15 A new reading of Marx 15 The 'juvenile presumptions' of existentialism 19 Structuralism as the French ideology 22 Logic and dialectics 27 Applications of the dialectic 36 Alienation 39 Production 43 The Party and beyond 46 2 Engaging with philosophy 65 Beyond Marxism 65 The Philosophies group, Schelling and Hegel 67 Nietzsche against the fascists 73 Heidegger and the metaphysics of the Grand Guignol 76 Metaphilosophy 83 Descartes and literature 85 3 The critique of everyday life 110 A day in the life 111 A critique of the present 115 Festival and revolution 117 4 From the rural to the urban 127 The town and the country 129 A sack of potatoes 135 Reading rural spaces 13 7 The spectre of the urban 140 Reading urban spaces 147 iv CONTENTS 5 Space and history 169 Time and moments 170 History 175 The production of space 181 Time, space and rhythm 192 6 Politics and the state 211 De VEt&t-An overview 215 The State Mode of Production 222 Autogestion and the right to difference 226 The world scale 231 The state organization of space 236 Politics, the political and the possible 241 Bibliography of Lefebvre's writings 257 Index of Names 263 Acknowledgements Elgin Diaz, Elizabeth Lebas, Adam Holden and Warren Montag read the entire manuscript of this book and it has benefited immeasurably from their careful and generous comments. Neil Brenner's report for the publishers was extremely helpful. Some early parts of the work here were improved by Mark Neocleous' useful suggestions, and I learnt much from working with Eleonore Kofman. Conversations with those already mentioned, and Sharon Cowan, Jeremy Crampton, Laurence Hemming, Morris Kaplan, James Olsen, Marisa Richardson, Maja Zehfuss and my colleagues at Dur- ham helped me to sharpen up many of my ideas. Working with Imogen Forster and Gerald Moore on translations has improved my ability to render Lefebvre into appropriate English. As an editor, Tristan Palmer has been extremely supportive of this and other Lefebvre projects. I am grateful to them all. I have given papers on Lefebvre at the University of Manchester, Brunei University, Friedrich-Alexander Universitat Erlangen-Niirnberg, University College London, University of Durham, Open University and the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution. I would like to thank these venues and their audiences for the opportunity to develop this work and improve its presentation. Tracking down Lefebvre's books and articles has taken me to a wide range of libraries. I am particularly grateful to the staff of the rare books and manuscripts library at Columbia University for access to Norbert Guterman's papers which include works and letters by Lefebvre. Some of these ideas first appeared in print in other places: part of Chap- ter 2 as 'Through the eyes of the fantastic: Lefebvre, Rabelais and intel- lectual history', Historical Materialism 10(4), December 2002, pp. 89-111; and a version of parts of Chapters 2 and 5 as 'Between Marx and Heidegger: politics, philosophy and Lefebvre's The Production of Space', Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography 36(1), January 2004. Some early ideas were outlined in 'Politics, philosophy, geography: Henri Lefebvre in recent Anglo-American scholarship', Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography 33(5), November 2001, pp. 809-25, although little of that text finds its way in here. I am grateful to the editors of these two journals for giving me the opportunity to try out some arguments, and to their referees who provided helpful comments and criticisms. I would also like to thank Jesko Fezer for translating a lecture of vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS mine into German, which appeared as ' »Es gibt eine Politik des Raumes, weil Raum Politisch ist.« Henri Lefebvre und die Produktion des Raums', An Architektur l,July 2002, pp. 27-35. This was a valuable experience, especially given the argument here that much of Lefebvre's work is the translation of German ideas into a French context. As ever I owe an incalculable personal debt to my mother, grandmother, Ian, Nicky, and Rachel; and to Susan, now my wife, for her love, patience and support. Stuart Elden Durham, July 2003 Introduction: Henri Lefebvre 1901-91 Lefebvre had an extraordinary life. It stretched from the very beginning of the century until a decade before its end. It is no surprise that his French biographer has accordingly called his work the adventure of the century.! Born eighteen years after Marx's death, and only six after Engels', Lefebvre was a youth of sixteen at the Russian Revolution, in his late thirties at the outbreak of World War Two, 60 at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, and still writing at the fall of the Berlin Wall. He obtained his licence in phil- osophy the year Althusser was born, and published his first articles two years before Foucault's birth, yet outlived both of them. In 1950, introducing his work to a French audience in a survey volume of contemporary thought, he wrote the following biographical note: Born in 1901, of a family belonging to the middle class. A strongly religious (Catholic) education. Youth tormented, rebellious, anarchistic. Found balance around his thirtieth year in and through Marxism. Has not followed a regular career, either University or otherwise. Currently in charge of research in the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, sociology section. Sees philosophy as a critical conscience on real life. Places theatre above philosophy (as he conceives it, not as it is!) Has only accomplished a small part of the programme of life and work that he has planned. Doesn't hope to arrive at the end.2 The parallel American volume of this collection cuts this down to a purely academic 'Born in 1901, formerly professor of Philosophy in Tou- louse. At present, in charge of studies at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, sociological section, in Paris',3 before listing some of his books. This is unfortunate, because the longer version seems revealing in terms of giving a glimpse of his formative years and the broad outlook he took. Lefebvre here explicitly states his Marxism, and how he sees philosophy 'as a critical conscience on real life'. This Marxism and this view of philosophy will be the guiding threads of this study, which seeks to situate Lefebvre within his intellectual context, to show how his many writings on disparate topics interrelate, and to demonstrate the importance of Lefebvre's writings for a range of contemporary concerns. Although this is a book about Lefebvre the thinker, the biographical, 2 UNDERSTANDING HENRI EEFEBVRE especially in the context of his two autobiographies, will inform the substan- tive chapters of this book. However it is worth providing a brief outline of his life at the outset, both for background and to introduce and outline the themes to be discussed in this book as a whole. Whereas Nietzsche claimed that 'I am one thing, my writings are another matter',4 Lefebvre argues that his work is his life.0 I would not want to reduce Lefebvre's writings to Lefebvre the man, but in his case, perhaps more legitimately than with many other writers, the work and the life were closely interrelated. Lefebvre was born just outside the Pyrenees in 1901 at Hegetmau. His mother was Bearnaise, with some Basque blood; his father had roots in Breton and Picardy. In his own terms, his father gave him a robust and stocky body; the mother a long face, almost Iberian. This led to his being described as having 'the head of Don Quixote on the body of Sancho Pancha'.() Although he left the Pyrenees in his early teens he was to retain strong attachments to it. Lefebvre was educated at the Louis-le-Grand Lycee in Paris, and originally intended to be an engineer, but following a bout of pleurisy he transferred to philosophy with Maurice Blondel at Aix-en- Provence, chosen, Hess claims, because of its climate.7 From 1919 he was educated at the Sorbonne with Leon Brunschvicg, writing on Jansen and Pascal. He attained his degree in philosophy, and in the early 1920s he was a member of a small group of left-wing students including Georges Politzer, Norbert Guterman, Georges Friedmann and Pierre Morhange. They founded the journal entitled Philosophies from which they took their name and in which Lefebvre published many of his first articles. This journal was founded with the belief that a challenge to the dominant philosophy of Bergson was necessary8 Leading on from some of this work, he associated with the surrealists, particularly Tristan Tzara and Andre Breton, and he and Guterman were among the signatories to a piece in La revolution surrealiste? He was later to break with them acrimoniously.10 With the dissolution of Philosophies and its successor L 'esprit Lefebvre moved away from academic work and during this time did his military service, worked in a factory, and drove a cab in Paris.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • From the Culture Industry to the Society of the Spectacle: Critical Theory and the Situationist International
    FROM THE CULTURE INDUSTRY TO THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE: CRITICAL THEORY AND THE SITUATIONIST INTERNATIONAL Kevin Fox Gotham and Daniel A. Krier ABSTRACT Since Karl Marx fashioned his theory of capitalism in the nineteenth century, scholars have continually updated Marxian theory to capture the pervasiveness of commodity relations in modern society. Influenced by Georg Luka´cs and Henri Lefebvre, the members of the French avant- guard group, the Situationist International (1957–1972), developed an intransigent critique of consumer capitalism based on the concept of the spectacle. In the spectacle, media and consumer society replace lived experience, the passive gaze of images supplants active social participa- tion, and new forms of alienation induce social atomization at a more abstract level than in previous societies. We endeavor to make two theoretical contributions: First, we highlight the contributions of the Situationist International, pointing out how they revised the Marxian categories of alienation, commodification, and reification in order to analyze the dynamics of twentieth century capitalism and to give these No Social Science Without Critical Theory Current Perspectives in Social Theory, Volume 25, 155–192 Copyright r 2008 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 0278-1204/doi:10.1016/S0278-1204(08)00005-4 155 156 KEVIN FOX GOTHAM AND DANIEL A. KRIER concepts new explanatory power. Second, we build a critical theory of consumer capitalism that incorporates the theoretical assumptions and arguments of the Situationists and the Frankfurt School. Today, critical theory can make an important contribution to sociology by critically examining the plurality of spectacles and their reifying manifestations.
    [Show full text]
  • Henri Lefebvre and the Production of Music Streaming Spaces (Doi: 10.2383/82481)
    Il Mulino - Rivisteweb Robert Prey Henri Lefebvre and the Production of Music Streaming Spaces (doi: 10.2383/82481) Sociologica (ISSN 1971-8853) Fascicolo 3, settembre-dicembre 2015 Ente di afferenza: () Copyright c by Societ`aeditrice il Mulino, Bologna. Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Per altre informazioni si veda https://www.rivisteweb.it Licenza d’uso L’articolo `emesso a disposizione dell’utente in licenza per uso esclusivamente privato e personale, senza scopo di lucro e senza fini direttamente o indirettamente commerciali. Salvo quanto espressamente previsto dalla licenza d’uso Rivisteweb, `efatto divieto di riprodurre, trasmettere, distribuire o altrimenti utilizzare l’articolo, per qualsiasi scopo o fine. Tutti i diritti sono riservati. Symposium / Other Senses of Place: Socio-Spatial Practices in the Contemporary Media Environment, edited by Federica Timeto Henri Lefebvre and the Production of Music Streaming Spaces by Robert Prey doi: 10.2383/82481 Human reasoning is innately spatial. [W]e are embodied, situated beings, who comprehend even disembodied commu- nications through the filter of embodied, situated experience [Cohen 2007, 213]. This appears to be why we constantly invoke place- and space-based metaphors to describe our online experiences. We visit a website; we join a virtual community in cyberspace, etc. However, to take the spatiality of “cyberspace” for granted is to forfeit any critical questioning of precisely how and why this network of networks has been spatialized. As Christian Schmid puts it, space ‘in itself’ can never serve as an epistemological starting position. Space does not exist ‘in itself’; it is produced [2008, 28]. This is where turning to the late French philosopher Henri Lefebvre becomes particularly useful.
    [Show full text]
  • Edgar Morin’S Path of Complexity
    FOREWORD EDGAR MORIN’S PATH OF COMPLEXITY ALFONSO MONTUORI Ndlr: A Montuori et l’éditeur de ‘On Complexity’ nous autorisent à reprender ici le texte anglais de la préface de l’ouvrage d’Edgar Morin qu’ils publient « ON COMPLEXITY » The reform in thinking is a key anthropological and historical problem. This implies a mental revolution of considerably greater proportions than the Copernican revolution. Never before in the history of humanity have the responsibilities of thinking weighed so crushingly on us. Does knowing that knowledge cannot be guaranteed by a foundation not mean that we have already acquired a first fundamental knowledge? And should this not lead us to abandon the architectural metaphor, in which the term “foundation” assumes an indispensable meaning, in favor of a musical metaphor of construction in movement that transforms in its very movement the constitutive elements that form it? And might we not also consider the knowledge of knowledge as a construction in movement? We need a kind of thinking that reconnects that which is disjointed and compartmentalized, that respects diversity as it recognizes unity, and that tries to discern interdependencies. We need a radical thinking (which gets to the root of problems), a multidimensional thinking, and an organizational or systemic thinking. History has not reached a stagnant end, nor is it triumphantly marching towards the radiant future. It is being catapulted into an unknown adventure. Edgar Morin: A Biblio-biography Perhaps the best way to provide a contextual introduction to Morin’s work is through an outline of his intellectual trajectory, in the form of a “biblio-biography.” A review of Morin’s journey helps us, I believe, to better understand the man and his mission in the essays that follow.
    [Show full text]
  • Political Space in the Work of Henri Lefebvre: Ideology and Utopia
    5/2012-13 Political Space in the Work of Henri Lefebvre: Ideology and Utopia Grégory BUSQUET, UMR LAVUE (Mosaïques), Université Paris Ouest Nanterre The ideas of philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre (1901-1991) are currently experiencing a revival in urban studies in France, while his theories on the city and urban society have been discussed and modified for many years in Anglophone social science literature. This new interest, which moreover extends to Europe, demonstrates however various uses of his philosophy: while some attempt to draw practical applications and to identify the influences of his theories on the practices of The Production of Space and on the usual uses of The Right to the City (Stanek, 2011), some philosophical or biographical exegeses ignore the concrete purpose of his reflections, namely, the socio-spatial processes of alienation, and occasionally at the same time turn up their noses at the setting in which they are expressed (social, political, urbanistic, etc.) and the conditions of their development. While some depoliticize his philosophy, giving it the currently popular slant (post-marxist) and emptying it of its subversive content and emancipating aim, as well as all references to conflict and the class struggle, others, conversely, especially abroad in the work of the supporters of Anglo-Saxon “radical geography”, take their inspiration from Lefebvre and do not allow their thoughts on space to be disassociated from an analysis of class or an analysis in terms of politics1. This article would be in alignment with the latter perspective, resituating Lefebvre’s thought on space and all its criticism, theoretical and practical alike, at the heart of that which in our opinion makes it unique, namely, it’s relationship with the political.
    [Show full text]
  • Culture Jamming
    Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Vincent de Jong for introducing me to the intricacy of the easyCity action, and for taking the time to answer my questions along my exploration of the case. I also want to thank Robin van t’ Haar for his surprising, and unique, contribution to my investigations of the easyCity action. Rozalinda Borcila, the insights you have shared with me have been a crucial reminder of my own privilieged position – your reflections, I hope, also became a marker in what I have written. Also, I would like to thank others that somehow made my fieldwork possible, and influenced my ‘learning’ of activism and culture jamming. Of these I would especially like to thank Nina Haukeland for introducing me to the politics of activism, Kirsti Hyldmo for reminding me of the realities of exploitation, Åse Brandvold for a skilled introduction to the thoughts and tools of culture jamming, and Maria Astrup for showing me the pleasures and powers of aesthetics. Also, I would like to thank the Norwegian Adbusters Network, and the editorial groups of Vreng. To my main advisor Professor Kristian Stokke, I would like to thank you for the excellent support you have given me throughout my master studies. Your insights have been of grate value, and I cannot thank you enough for continually challenging me. Also, the feedback from Olve Krange, my second advisor, was crucial at the early stage of developing the thesis, to defining its object of inquiry, and finally when writing my conclusion. I would also like to express my appreciation to Professor Oddrun Sæther for an excellent introduction to the field of cultural studies, to Professor Matt Sparke at the University of Washington for demonstrating the intriguing complexities of political geography, and to PhD candidate Stephen Young, for proof reading and fruitful inputs at the final stage of writing.
    [Show full text]
  • Human Creation, Imagination and Autonomy a Brief Introduction to Castoriadis’ Social and Psychoanalytical Philosophy
    HUMAN CREATION, IMAGINATION AND AUTONOMY A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO CASTORIADIS’ SOCIAL AND PSYCHOANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY Theofanis Tassis University of Crete Introduction Cornelius Castoriadis has been one of the most important and innovative intellectuals of the second half of the 20th century. Philosopher, revolutionary, co-founder of the legendary group and journal Socialisme ou Barbarie, practicing psychoanalyst who revised Freudian theory, political intellectual who inspired workers and students during the May 1968 events in France, professional economist in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, recognized hellenist, distinguished representative of the radical left and supporter of the project of autonomy. As Jürgen Habermas states, Cornelius Castoriadis undertook “…the most original, the most ambitious and the most profound task to view … the liberating interference of history, society, inner and outer nature, as an act”.1 Octavio Paz refers to him as an intellectual “to whom we owe a precious elucidation of politics and philosophy”,2 Edgar Morin names him “a titan of the spirit”,3 and Axel Honneth characterizes him as “the last representative and renovator of the tradition of the European Left and the creator of an influential theory”.4 According to Hans Joas, 1 Jürgen Habermas, Der philosophische Diskurs der Moderne, Suhrkamp, 1985, p. 380. 2 Octavio Paz, “Itinerarum, Kleine politische Autobiographie”, in Frankfurt Allgemeine, 1993, p. 56. 3 Edgar Morin, « Castoriadis: un titan de l’esprit (necrologie) », in Le Monde, 30 December 1997, p. 1. 4 Axel Honneth, “Die Kreativität des Sozialen: Zum Tode von Cornelius Castoriadis”, in Frankfurter Rundschau, 30 December 1997. Philosophica, 37, Lisboa, 2011, pp. 197-213 198 Theofanis Tassis Castoriadis’s theory is “…the most original contemporary attempt to express a political philosophy through the notion of creativity”.5 However, for a long time, his ideas, circulated broadly, and became more famous than his name.
    [Show full text]
  • Cities Within the City: Doityourself Urbanism and the Right to the City
    bs_bs_banner Volume 37.3 May 2013 941–56 International Journal of Urban and Regional Research DOI:10.1111/1468-2427.12053 Cities within the City: Do-It-Yourself Urbanism and the Right to the City KURT IVESON Abstract In many cities around the world we are presently witnessing the growth of, and interest in, a range of micro-spatial urban practices that are reshaping urban spaces. These practices include actions such as: guerrilla and community gardening; housing and retail cooperatives; flash mobbing and other shock tactics; social economies and bartering schemes; ‘empty spaces’ movements to occupy abandoned buildings for a range of purposes; subcultural practices like graffiti/street art, skateboarding and parkour; and more. This article asks: to what extent do such practices constitute a new form of urban politics that might give birth to a more just and democratic city? In answering this question, the article considers these so-called ‘do-it-yourself urbanisms’ from the perspective of the ‘right to the city’. After critically assessing that concept, the article argues that in order for do-it-yourself urbanist practices to generate a wider politics of the city through the appropriation of urban space, they also need to assert new forms of authority in the city based on the equality of urban inhabitants. This claim is illustrated through an analysis of the do-it-yourself practices of Sydney-based activist collective BUGA UP and the New York and Madrid Street Advertising Takeovers. Introduction In many cities around the world we are presently witnessing the growth of, and interest in, a range of micro-spatial urban practices that are reshaping urban spaces.
    [Show full text]
  • Socialisme Ou Barbarie: a French Revolutionary Group (1949-65)
    Socialisme ou Barbarie: A French Revolutionary Group (1949-65) Marcel van der Lindenl In memory of Cornelius Castoriadis, 11 March 1922 - 26 December 1997 The political and theoretical views developed by the radical group Socialisme ou Barbarie from 1949 onward, have only recently received some attention outside the French speaking world.2 For a long period things were little different in France where the group and its similarly named periodical also received scant attention. This only changed after the students' and workers' rebellion in May- June 1968. The remnants of the journal, which had been unsaleable up to then - it had stopped appearing three years earlier - suddenly became a hot-selling item. Many of the 'heretical' ideas published in it seemed to be confirmed by the unexpected revolt. In 1977 the daily Le Monde wrote on the intellectual efforts of Socialisme ou Barbarie: "This work - aIthough unknown to the public at large -has nevertheless had a powerful influence on those who played a role in May 1968." In the writings of the group one finds "most of the ideas which are being debated nowadays (from workers' control through to the critique of modern technology, of Bolshevism or of mar^)."^ In Socialisme ou Barbarie an attempt was made to consider the bureaucra- tization of social movements. The central questions were: is it an iron law that movements opposing the existing order either fall apart or change into rigid hierarchies? How can militants organize themselves without being absorbed or rigidified into a bureaucratic apparatus? Socialisme ou Barbarie first posed these questions because the group asked itself why things had gone wrong in the traditional labour movement.
    [Show full text]
  • General Complexity Abstract Introduction Authors
    14/10/2018 General complexity – Emergence: Complexity and Organization General complexity A philosophical and critical perspective June 1, 2018 · Philosophy Authors Minka Woermann Oliver Human Rika Preiser Abstract In this paper we argue that a rigorous understanding of the nature and implications of complexity reveals that the underlying assumptions that inform our understanding of complex phenomena are deeply related to general philosophical issues. We draw on a very specic philosophical interpretation of complexity, as informed by the work of Paul Cilliers and Edgar Morin. This interpretation of complexity, we argue, resonates with specic themes in post-structural philosophy in general, and deconstruction in particular. We argue that post-structural terms such as diérance carry critical insights into furthering our understanding of complexity. The dening feature that distinguishes the account of complexity oered here to other contemporary theories of complexity is the notion of critique. The critical imperative that can be located in a philosophical interpretation of complexity exposes the limitations of totalising theories and subsequently calls for examining the normativity inherent in the knowledge claims that we make. The conjunction of complexity and post-structuralism inscribes a critical-emancipatory impetus into the complexity approach that is missing from other theories of complexity. We therefore argue for the importance of critical complexity against reductionist or restricted understandings of complexity. Introduction The
    [Show full text]
  • Is There a French Philosophy of Technology? in Loeve, S
    Is there a french philosophy of technology ? General introduction Sacha Loeve, Xavier Guchet, Bernadette Bensaude Vincent To cite this version: Sacha Loeve, Xavier Guchet, Bernadette Bensaude Vincent. Is there a french philosophy of tech- nology ? General introduction. Sacha Loeve; Xavier Guchet; Bernadette Bensaude Vincent. French philosophy of technology. Classical readings and contemporary approaches, Springer, pp.1-20, 2018, Philosophy of engineering and technology, 978-3-319-89518-5. 10.1007/978-3-319-89518-5_1. halshs- 02013031 HAL Id: halshs-02013031 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02013031 Submitted on 9 Feb 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Loeve, S., Guchet X., & Bensaude Vincent, B. (2018). Is There a French Philosophy of Technology? In Loeve, S. Guchet X., & Bensaude Vincent, B. (eds.), French Philosophy of Technology. Classical Readings and Contemporary Approaches , Cham: Springer, pp. 1-20. Post-print version. Is There a French Philosophy of Technology? General Introduction Sacha Loeve Institut de Recherches Philosophiques de Lyon (IRPhiL) Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, France Xavier Guchet Connaissances, Organisation et Systèmes TECHniques (COSTECH) Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France Bernadette Bensaude Vincent Centre d’Etude des Connaissances, des Techniques et des Pratiques (CETCOPRA) Université Paris 1 Panthéon – Sorbonne, France Abstract The existence of a French philosophy of technology is a matter of debate.
    [Show full text]
  • Of Wiener and Bertalanffy Or the Dawn of Complexity
    Journal of Multidisciplinary Engineering Science and Technology (JMEST) ISSN: 2458-9403 Vol. 7 Issue 12, December - 2020 Of Wiener And Bertalanffy Or The Dawn Of Complexity Enio Alterman Blay José Roberto Castilho Piqueira Electrical Engineering programme Full Professor in systems engineering Escola Politécnica da USP Escola Politécnica da USP São Paulo, Brazil São Paulo, Brazil [email protected] [email protected] Abstract— This paper presents and compares beginning of its temporal scale (1940-1950) these two “Cybernetics or, Communication and Control in thinkers that somehow paved the way to the the Animal and the Machine”, from Norbert Wiener contemporary sense of the term Complexity, either in and “General System Theory”, from Ludwig von a philosophical inkling like Complex Thinking of Bertalanffy and shows how both relate to Edgard Morin [4] or in pragmatic approaches as Complexity. As for presentation, the historical Complex (Adaptive) Systems or Complexity context of life and work of these authors is Engineering [5]. depicted, and the comparison is carried out through the analysis of chosen keys concepts where similarities and oppositions are highlighted. Since both areas developed a specific vocabulary but the original meaning might be different today, this article provides a specific definition and discussion section. The text concludes pointing out elements that are now present in the contemporary Complexity discourse. Keywords — Complexity, Cybernetics, General System Theory Figure 1 – Complexity Map [3] I. INTRODUCTION Ideas appear, interrelate, modify. Sometimes fade way or simply hibernate. So then, when we contemplate the intellectual tools at hand, it is important to ponder about their origins, history, and winding paths towards us.
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Systems Theory?
    What is Systems Theory? Systems theory is an interdisciplinary theory about the nature of complex systems in nature, society, and science, and is a framework by which one can investigate and/or describe any group of objects that work together to produce some result. This could be a single organism, any organization or society, or any electro-mechanical or informational artifact. As a technical and general academic area of study it predominantly refers to the science of systems that resulted from Bertalanffy's General System Theory (GST), among others, in initiating what became a project of systems research and practice. Systems theoretical approaches were later appropriated in other fields, such as in the structural functionalist sociology of Talcott Parsons and Niklas Luhmann . Contents - 1 Overview - 2 History - 3 Developments in system theories - 3.1 General systems research and systems inquiry - 3.2 Cybernetics - 3.3 Complex adaptive systems - 4 Applications of system theories - 4.1 Living systems theory - 4.2 Organizational theory - 4.3 Software and computing - 4.4 Sociology and Sociocybernetics - 4.5 System dynamics - 4.6 Systems engineering - 4.7 Systems psychology - 5 See also - 6 References - 7 Further reading - 8 External links - 9 Organisations // Overview 1 / 20 What is Systems Theory? Margaret Mead was an influential figure in systems theory. Contemporary ideas from systems theory have grown with diversified areas, exemplified by the work of Béla H. Bánáthy, ecological systems with Howard T. Odum, Eugene Odum and Fritj of Capra , organizational theory and management with individuals such as Peter Senge , interdisciplinary study with areas like Human Resource Development from the work of Richard A.
    [Show full text]