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The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems By Fritjof Capra ( Anchor )
Release Date: 1997-09-15
Average Customer Rating:
List Price: $15.95
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Product Description
In his international bestsellers The Tao of Physics and The Turning Point, Fritjof Capra juxtaposed physics and mysticism to define a new vision of reality. Now, in The Web of Life, he takes yet another giant step forward, offering a brilliant synthesis of such recent scientific breakthroughs as the theory of complexity, Gaia theory, and chaos theory. 25 line drawings.
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 Web of Life a Little Bit Tangled ( glenngallagher43 )
I admire the intent of The Web of Life, but the outcome is a bit messy and confusing. Although the content and ideas Capra writes about are very important, and I agree with about 90 percent of what he says, the way it is stated is very confusing and not well-written in most parts. A comprehensive knowledge of the sciences is required before making sense of this book, and even if you possess that, it still is not very clear. Only recommended for those willing to wade through some murky text.
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This is not for the leisure reader...
I had to read this book for a class that I was enrolled in. This book is really tough to get through. Jam packed full of interesting views, some parts I had to read twice just so that I could comprehend the subject. This isn't a book that I would have chosen to read on my own.
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 Good introduction to systems theory and its implications to other spheres ( patca63 )
While this book isn't perfect, it is certainly a very nice introduction for the average person to systems theory and its implications to other areas.
I basically agree with some of the criticisms in the spotlight reviews about the flatland or a web of life vs. a heirarchy (or even better holarchy) both in nature and in other spheres of life. For example, in a holarchy is a heirachy of wholes that are part of larger wholes in the way that atoms make up molecules, molecules make up cells, collections of cells make up a tissue, etc. This is concept is underplayed in this book, but it seems to be true inside and outside of nature. Ken Wilber offers a more complete explanation of this concept in A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYTHING and many other writings.
I also think it's important to keep in mind that a systems view is an outside look of a collective. Empiricism represents an outside look of some single topic. I think it is also necessary to look at the interiority of both individuals and collectives to get a complete understanding of something as complicated as life, politics, religion, etc. I don't think system theory alone is the magic bullet.
This book is relatively short, easy to follow and provides a nice introduction to systems theories and some other important topics. It has some shortcomings, but it is basically solid although there is a bias toward a "flatland" view of nature and reality. If you supplement reading it with some other material such as the book I mentioned above, it may open up some new horizons for you.
Happy reading... I hope you found my interview helpful. Feel free to leave comments if you wish.
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 New Ager's View of Life ( theo1934 )
This is a superficial and flawed book. It contains some truths but it usually draws the wrong conclusions from them. "New Agers" may love discussion of such topics as "Ecofeminism" and the book will probably make them feel good but I would not recommend it for anyone else. A person with background in the physical or life sciences could probably separate the wheat from the chaff in the book but such a person may already know most of the material. Others are likely to be misled.
Several earlier reviewers (such as "radtrad", J. Floyd, "doomsdayer520", and others) have made specific criticisms that I find valid, so I do not want to repeat them here. If anything, they have been too kind to the book.
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 Excellent book!!! ( mindinspace )
I can't attest to the science, so this review is about "The Web of Life" as literature. The Web of Life is a highly articulate and worthy piece of literature. Even at it's most scientific, it reads like the friendly voice of a wise Indian Chief. It begins with a quote inspired by Chief Seattle, and proceeds to frame the cultural context of various theories. The science gives a foundation to a conscientious way for institutions to view the world, which I honestly believe is the only solution to the greed driven decline of values in modern institutions. Conscience in institutions begins with what people believe to be true...and modern culture has some fixed ideas with probably no basis in fact except as dictated by greed. Conscience in institutions is a topic that sprouts in various forms in books related to Systems Thinking, etc.
It takes a highly articulate book to step over the communication "land mines" inherant in old ways of thinking and justifications. Systems Thinking by itself in an institutional setting would have a difficult time bringing about one drop of conscience. "Systems Thinking" will rarely work well in institutions simply because as a language, it is too closely related to the type of "business thinking" that has evolved for years (Old thinking = get as much for as little as possible, grow financially at the expense of everything else, etc.)
And I think the science in The Web of Life is sound. My quantum physisist friend seemed to like it...
I just watched another popular video called "What the Bleep"....about how thoughts effect your reality..which after watching it made me pause to think about how what we're thinking is important...but that's kind of similar to the Web of Life in the sense that it's entertaining AND it's educational and raises some questions about ethical considerations.
Of course, scientists DO sometimes perceive things in overly codified ways....and the average person may not think that conscience and science should be mixed. But the world DOES have issues, and those issues are real...and unfortunately, science has both fixed things AND at times made things worse. So we have pennisiln AND we have atom bombs, both from science. So, religion is important, BUT science...or at least GOOD science is a necessary investment...and this book details a direction for Science that gives a foundation to new ways of seeing matters of genuine concerns for humanity and life on the planet in this crazy era we're living now.
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