> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Capra-Sagesse-des-sages/363460

> Lebrun Paule. LA SAGESSE DES SAGES, par Fritjof Capra (Age du Verseau, 1988; 27,95 $)
In: (1989), Nuit blanche, le magazine du livre, (37), p. 61. … ; (en ligne),
URL : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/20168ac

> Ce livre est une rencontre avec des personnes tels que Werner Heisenberg, Krishnamurti, Ronald D. Laing, Alan Watts, Gregory Bateson et surtout Hazel Henderson. Une belle perspective et d'innombrables découvertes.
—Danieljean (Babelio)

> SAGESSE DES SAGES, de Fritjof Capra. — Par de vivants récits autobiographiques, l’auteur du « Tao de la Physique » nous fait connaître son cheminement : sa rencontre avec J. Krishnamurti, son échange amical avec le grand physicien Werner Heisenberg lors de la rédaction de son premier ouvrage cité plus haut, ses « conversations intensives » avec Stanislav Grof et R. D. Laing, les histoires de Grégory Bateson, son émouvant entretien avec Indira Gandhi, etc…
Fritjof Capra nous présente ici des thèmes de première importance, abordés au cours de sa vie : science et mystique, spiritualité orientale, écologie et voies alternatives… Il nous apprend, par exemple, que le physicien Geoffrey Chew, créateur de la théorie du Bootstrap, admet des parallèles évidents entre sa théorie et le Bouddhisme Mahayana.
Cet ouvrage nous conduit, dans divers domaines, vers un changement de paradigme. Éditions L'Age du Verseau - 330 p.
—3e millénaire, (12), Été 1989 ( )

SABIDURÍA INSÓLITA :CONVERSACIONES CON PERSONAJES NOTABLES

Como ha escrito Norman Cousins
Sabiduria insólita es un maravilloso
banquete de ideas contemporáneas:
ciencia, metafísica, religión, filosofía
y salud son temas recurrentes que van
comunicando una nueva visión de la
realidad.

Sabiduria insólita es, también, el
esbozo de la odisea intelectual de su
autor, a través de animadas discusiones
con muchos de los pensadores
más influyentes de este siglo. Son
particularmente apasionantes los en
cuentros con Werner Heisenberg, uno
de los genios máximos de la física cuántica; con Geoffrey Chew, inspirador
de las propias concepciones de Capra; con J. Krishnamurti y Alan
Watts, maestros en trascender el pensamiento sin perder el compromiso
con la ciencia; con Gregory Bateson, el hombre que unió Teoría de la
Comunicación y Biología; con Stanislav Grof y R.D. Laing, pioneros en
el estudio de la conciencia humana; con E. F. Schumacher y Hazel
Henderson, figuras universales del movimiento ecologista; con Margaret
Lock y Carl Simonton, maestros en el campo de la salud y la curación
Sin olvidar a la gran figura de Indira Gandhi, que tanto defendió la idea
de la interdependencia global.

Sabiduria insólita es, en suma, un documento excepcional, a la vez
profundo y ameno, que nos da las claves para la emergencia de un nuevo
paradigma científico y cultural.

Fritjof Capra,
mundialmente famoso por su libro El Tao de la física, es
doctor en ciencias por la Universidad de Viena. Ha sido profesor en las
Universidades de París, California, Santa Cruz y Stanford. Fundador del
Elwood Institute de Berkeley, organización internacional dedicada al
fomento de nuevas visiones ecológicas, el Dr. Capra prosigue, junto a su la
bor científica, su obra de reflexión sobre las relaciones entre física
moderna y mística oriental.

I read this over Christmas break, and it was a nice book to relax with on vacation. An easy read that follows the development of Capra’s holistic/ecological themes through various fields (physics, spirituality, economics, psychology, medicine, etc.). Capra is interested in understanding the world from an ecological or “systems” perspective, that is seeing social institutions, economics and other fields as organic structures composed of many interacting parts, movements, and levels. The book’s conversational format allows these abstract ideas to be explored with actual examples and in a back-and-forth style that leaves plenty of room for clarification. I was introduced to several thinkers I had not encountered before, two of whose books I’ve since purchased (see related quotes at bottom).

The book is liberal in tone in that it covers ideas that challenge the established order (pharmaceutical based medicine, capitalist economics) and explores researchers and writers that were pushing the boundaries of their disciplines. An example of this type of writing: “As the pharmaceutical industry has conditioned doctors and patients to believe that the human body needs continual medical supervision and drug treatment to stay healthy, so the petrochemical industry has made farmers believe the soil needs massive infusions of chemicals, supervised by agricultural scientists and technicians, to remain productive”. (Pg. 182).

The book was published in 1988 so it’s possible many of these ideas are dated, but I felt it was quite modern, dealing with issues that in my opinion are even more pertinent to today’s society. For instance the conversations and ideas of Fritz Schumacher and Hazel Henderson are very relevant to a society that, after the Great Recession, is perhaps reevaluating its commitment to overconsumption.

Here’s some further quotes referencing individuals I wish to read up on further:

Referring to R.D. Laing:

“This is where Laing parted company with most of his colleagues. He concentrated on the origins of mental illness by looking at the human condition – at the individual embedded in a network of multiple relationships – and thus addressed psychiatric problems in existential terms. Instead of treating schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis as diseases, he regarded them as special strategies that people invent in order to survive in unlivable situations. This view amounted to a radical change in perspective, which led Laing to see madness as a sane response to an insane social environment”. - Pg 95

Referring to Hazel Henderson:

“To provide economics with a sound ecological basis, Henderson insists, economists will need to revise their basic concepts in a drastic way. She illustrates with many examples how these concepts were narrowly defined and have been used without their social and ecological context. The gross national product, for example, which is supposed to measure a nation's wealth, is determined by adding up indiscriminately all economic activities associated with monetary values, while all nonmonetary aspects of the economy are ignored. Social costs, like those of accidents, litigation, and healthcare, are added as positive contributions to the GNP, rather than being subtracted. Henderson quotes Ralph Nader's incisive comment, "every time there is an automobile accident the GNP goes up," and she speculates that those social costs may be the only fraction of the GNP that is still growing”. - Pg. 235 ( )

This is an author, an observor of our world, whose book, now 20 years old, still has much to offer. For deep thinkers. A collection of reportage of some of the great minds of recent times: Krishnamurti, Bateson, Grof, Schumacher, Indira Ghandi.

This book was receommended to me by a very special person, with special gifts and wisdom. It is to be passed on from person to person. ( )

SUMÁRIO:

[009] - Prefácio;
[013] - Uivando com os lobos - Werner Heisenberg; J. Krishanamurti;
[041] - Fundamento comum - Geoffrey Chew;
[059] - O padrão que une - Gregoru Bateson;
[075] - Nadando no mesmo oceano - Stanislav Grof; R. D. Laing;
[123] - A busca do equilíbrio - Carl Simonton; Margaret Lock;
[169] - Futuros alternativos - E. F. Schumacher; Hazel Henderson;
[215] - Os diálogos de Big Sur
[255] - Uma qualidade especial de sabedoria - Indira Gandhi;
[271] - Bibliografia;
[273] - Índice remissivo.
(.)