Change or Founder. On Edgar Morin's Book Vers l'abîme ?

Is our civilization heading straight “for the abyss”? This is the question raised in a recent book Vers l’abîme ? [Toward the Abyss?] (Paris: L’Herne, 2007) by Edgar Morin, the famous French philosopher, whose major work La Méthode (1977-2004) develops a system of thinking aimed at grasping reality in all its complexity. Pierre F. Gonod, who has read this recent book for Futuribles, presents here the main outlines of Morin’s thinking. After reminding us of the “crisis of modernity” our societies are currently passing through, he examines the reform of modes of thinking and reasoning proposed by Edgar Morin. He then clarifies the philosopher’s analysis of globalization and the emergence of “world-society” and describes the answer that a “politics of civilization” can offer in the context of the post-9/11 period. In the face of the catastrophe that is looming, concludes Morin, only thoroughgoing change can offer a way forward for our civilization.