Table of Contents

• Preface.
• The Atomistic View And The Systems View.
• Why Science Shifts its Sights.
• The Rise of the Systems Sciences.
• A Contrast of Worldviews.
• What Is A System?
• The Systems View Of Nature.
• Proposition One: Natural Systems Are Wholes with Irreducible Properties.
• Proposition Two: Natural Systems Maintain Themselves in a Changing Environment.
• Proposition Three: Natural Systems Create Themselves in Response to Self-Creativity in Other Systems.
• Proposition Four: Natural Systems are Coordinating Interfaces in Nature's Holarchy.
• The Systems View Of Ourselves.
• Our Cosmic Origins.
• Our Place in the Universe.
• Consciousness.
• Culture.
• The Nature of Value.
• The Question of Norms.
• Determinism and Freedom.
• A Role for Religion.
• Selected Writings On Evolution And Society.
• Index.

About the Author

Ervin Laszlo, twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is editor of the international periodical World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution and Chancellor-Designate of the newly formed GlobalShift University. He is the founder and president of the international think tanks the Club of Budapest and the General Evolution Research Group and the author of 83 books translated into 21 languages. He lives in Italy.