Photis Schurmans: Edgar Morin's ‘The Method’ - A Critical Reading

The French philosopher and sociologist Edgar Morin worked for almost 30 years on his 2.500 pages masterwork ‘The Method’ (1977-2004). In this seminar, Photis Schurmans will go through the main concepts put forward by Morin to clarify his vision of complex thinking. Examples of concepts include ‘dialogic’, ‘recursive loop’, ‘organisation’ and ‘emergence’. Morin defines himself as a constructivist thinker: how we perceive reality is the result of the interaction of our minds with reality, and not of reality as such. Morin is well-known in southern Europe and Latin America - the ‘Multiversidad Mundo Real’ in Mexico has been founded as a tribute to him - but he is less known in the Low Countries. This lecture intends to be an introduction for those not acquainted with Morin’s work. Photis Schurmans will conclude the seminar by sharing and discussing some of the questions which arose when reading ‘The Method’.

The Speaker
Photis Schurmans graduated cum laude in Philosophy (Media, Cultural and Political Philosophy) in 2016 at the VUB, Brussels. She is currently preparing a PhD on ‘Being’ and ‘Becoming’ to which end she read Edgar Morin's ‘The Method’. Schurmans has a lifelong career in finances.

The CLEA seminars are taking place simultaneously at the VUB campus in Etterbeek, Brussels, and online (via Zoom) and are open to everyone interested. Read more at clea.research.vub.be/en