Science Engagement and Public Communication Officer, JLASC
Edgar Morin (Paris, 1921–2026), at the age of 105, was one of the most long-lived intellectuals of this century and a part of this earthly world. He bequeathed more than eight decades of knowledge in the fields of Sociology, Philosophy, Anthropology, Epistemology, among others. His life was astonishing, from his early postulates on the complexity of the human being to the present moment, when the world has remembered his true name and his Jewish origin.
He was born and studied history, geography, and law at the University of Paris. Under the name Edgar Nahoum, he participated in the French Resistance against the German invasion. From that time onward, he adopted the pseudonym “Morin.” He was recognized not only in Europe but mainly in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia, for his major contributions to educational reforms, human communication, and structured knowledge.
Image courtesy of Tomás Fernández and Elena Tamaro, Biografías y Vidas, Barcelona, 2004 www.biografiasyvidas.com.
For this thinker, knowledge is not simple but complex, though not from a complicated perspective. He argued that interdisciplinarity, which sought to build bridges between disciplines to overcome the fragmentation of knowledge, is no longer sufficient to interpret reality.
He advocated for a new concept: hyperdisciplinarity. This implies that a given scientific field reflects on its own limits, engages in dialogue with other areas of knowledge, integrates new approaches, and contributes to the comprehensive understanding of other domains.
He was a visionary for his time because, perhaps because he was distant from a fully mediated and technological world, he anticipated the need to recover the essence of communication. From a striking simplicity, he revisited the etymological origin of the Latin term communicatio, which means “to share” or “to hold in common.”
Communication, he argued, must be multidimensional. It should not be limited to the transmission of information but must also consider the inherent aspects of each participant in this process, aspects in which histories, lives, cultures, and thoughts converge. Thanks to Morin’s perspective, it is now understood that assertive communication employs active listening, structures meaningful messages, and acknowledges the presence of communication interferences, while being highly critical of simplistic discourses in the face of complex realities.
One of the areas to which he contributed and revolutionized was education. In 1999, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) commissioned Edgar Morin to produce a text identifying the fundamental challenges of 21st-century education, which he called The Seven Necessary Knowledges for Education (also known as The Seven Complex Lessons in Education).
This document served as a basis for educational reforms in Latin America, highlighting the importance of humanized education that enables understanding of the world’s complexities. It emphasizes the prevalence of the human condition, with its successes and failures, as an alternative for confronting uncertainties with responsibility, solidarity, and ethics.
More than 25 years ago, Morin spoke of the importance of reflective thinking that forces us to reconsider supposed absolute truths, that allows for coexistence among diversities, and that restores hope in humanity: “To know the human is, above all, to situate it in the universe and not to separate it from it” (E. Morin).
References:
Morin, E. (1999). The seven necessary knowledges for the education of the future. UNESCO.
Maldonado, C. E. (2007). Complejidad: ciencia, pensamiento y aplicaciones. Universidad Externado de Colombia.
Najmanovich, D. (2008). Mirar con nuevos ojos: nuevos paradigmas en la ciencia y pensamiento complejo. Biblos.