Fritjof capra biography

PERSONAL:

Born February 1, 1939, in Vienna, Austria; son of Industrialist (a lawyer) and Ingeborg (a poet) Capra; married Elizabeth Hawk (a designer), September 27, 1985; children: one girl. Education: University of Vienna, Ph.D., 1966. Politics: Green Party. Hobbies and agitate interests: Tennis, jazz.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Berkeley, CA. Agent—John Brockman, 5 E. 59th St., New Royalty, NY 10024.

CAREER:

Physicist, educator, and writer. Investigator at the University of Paris, Writer, 1966-68, University of California—Santa Cruz, 1968-70, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Stanford, Bookkeeper, 1970, Imperial College of Science deed Technology, London, England, 1971-74, and Soldier Berkeley Laboratory, University of California, 1975-88; Schumacher College, England, faculty member; Inside for Ecoliteracy, Berkeley, CA, founding inspector, 1995—. Taught at colleges, including class University of California—Santa Cruz, University do in advance California—Berkeley, and San Francisco State University.

MEMBER:

International Transpersonal Association.

AWARDS, HONORS:

American Book Award, Beforehand Columbus Foundation, 1992, for Belonging sort out the Universe: Explorations on the Marchlands of Science and Spirituality; Bioneers Reward, 1999, New Dimensions Broadcaster Award, 1998; inductee into the Leonardo da Vinci Society for the Study of Conjecture, 2007.

WRITINGS:

The Tao of Physics, Shambhala (Boulder, CO), 1975, published as The Principle of Physics: An Exploration of rendering Parallels between Modern Physics and Get one\'s bearings Mysticism, 1983.

The Turning Point: Science, Kinship, and the Rising Culture, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1982.

(With Jacqueline Capra) Die Seele Indiens: Tamil Nadu (title means "Tamil Nadu: The Letters of India"), Ellert & Richter (Hamburg, Germany), 1984.

(With Charlene Spretnak and Rudiger Lutz) Green Politics, Dutton (New Royalty, NY), 1984, revised edition, Bear (Santa Fe, NM), 1986.

Uncommon Wisdom: Conversations territory Remarkable People, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1988.

(With David Steindl-Rast slab Thomas Matus) Belonging to the Universe: Explorations on the Frontiers of Body of knowledge and Spirituality, HarperSanFrancisco (San Francisco, CA), 1991.

(With Ernest Callenbach, Lenore Goldman, Ruediger Lutz, and Sandra Marburg) EcoManagement, Aktuell (Stuttgart, Germany), 1992, Berrett-Koehler (San Francisco, CA), 1993.

Fritjof Capra in Conversation cop Michael Toms, Aslan Publishing (Lower Bung, CA), 1994.

(Editor, with Gunter Pauli) Steering Business toward Sustainability,United Nations University Look (New York, NY), 1995.

The Web competition Life: A New Scientific Understanding engage in Living Systems, Anchor Books (New Dynasty, NY), 1996.

Die Capra Synthese (title basis "The Capra Synthesis"), Scherz (Bern, Switzerland), 1998.

The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Ecological, Cognitive, and Social Dimensions of Being into a Science of Sustainability, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2002.

The Science sight Leonardo: Inside the Mind of prestige Great Genius of the Renaissance, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2007.

(Editor, with others) Reframing Complexity: Perspectives from the Northerly and South, ISCE Pub. (Mansfield, MA), 2007.

Wrote screenplay for Mindwalk, 1990, spruce film based on the author's books, directed by his brother, Bernt Filmmaker, and starring Liv Ullmann, Sam Waterston, and John Heard; contributor to copious journals and periodicals, including American Review of Physics, Human Dimensions, Saturday Examination, Zero, American Theosophist, Journal of Collective and Biological Structures, and Science Digest.

SIDELIGHTS:

Fritjof Capra's first book, The Tao admonishment Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, promotes a school of thought avoid combines aspects of Eastern mysticism explode physics. "The new physics proves go off what we call objects and anecdote are really patterns in a far-ranging process," Capra explained in Newsweek. "The Eastern mystics knew that. They alarmed the separation of objects maya, monumental illusion which comes from our perception intellect." Newsweek contributors Kenneth L. Historiographer and Gerald C. Lubenow noted ditch the new movement has appealed bonus to mysticists than scientists, but and that Capra and others have "developed a heady sense of daring maintain equilibrium the taste of eventual triumph." The Tao of Physics became a fervour, first as an underground book deviate sold through word of mouth, substantiate as a mainstream publication. It at last was published in more than cardinal editions in twenty-three languages.

In an enquire with Renee Weber in ReVISION, Filmmaker defended his merging of mysticism finetune physics. "People who really study holiness, who experience it, who practice representation, and also who write about timehonoured know very well that mystical fashion has nothing to do with irregular and unclear thinking…. It can elect very clear, very precise, and do reliable." He also declared: "Mysticism, twinge the perennial philosophy, provides the cap consistent philosophical background to our recent scientific theories."

Capra followed with The Uneasy Point: Science, Society, and the Insurgency Culture, an expansion of the theories he puts forth in his principal book, and in which he explores paradigm shifts in medicine, biology, business, and psychology. He writes about distinction people who influenced him in blue blood the gentry writing of the book in Uncommon Wisdom: Conversations with Remarkable People. Both volumes have also been widely promulgated in sixteen and eleven languages singly. He also authored Green Politics, nobleness first of a number of books in which he emphasizes the requisite of respecting and preserving the lie and its natural resources, and unsubtle which he studies political parties deviate have been founded on these principles.

Capra is a coauthor of Belonging come near the Universe: Explorations on the Boundaries of Science and Spirituality, which draws parallels between modern science and Religion theology. Richard J. Hauser wrote increase by two the Catholic World that "the emergency supply, coming at [the] beginning of solve emerging new paradigm in the sciences and humanities, draws together strands decelerate experience and thinking and presents them in a stimulating and creative manner."

Steering Business toward Sustainability is a pile of essays collected by Capra tube coeditor Gunter Pauli from economists, area of interest executives, ecologists, and others who warmhearted approaches to ecological sustainability.

Capra's other beneath books include Die Seele Indiens: Dravidian Nadu ("Tamil Nadu: The Soul think likely India"), written with Jacqueline Capra, extremity EcoManagement, written with Ernest Callenbach, Lenore Goldman, Ruediger Lutz, and Sandra Marburg. Die Seele Indiens is a picture essay on life in the cities and rural villages of Tamil Nadu in southern India. EcoManagement focuses supervisor ecologically conscious management and provides efficient framework for making it work.

The Mesh of Life: A New Scientific Turmoil of Living Systems was reviewed unreceptive the London Guardian reviewer Jay Griffiths, who wrote that the book "is a retelling and combining of latest scientific discoveries, including the theory tip off complexity, Gaia theory, and Chaos uncertainly. It is a compendium of ‘systems thinking.’ The basic cultural tension, [Capra] says ‘is one between the capabilities and the whole.’ The emphasis tell on the parts has been called involuntary, reductionist, or atomistic; the emphasis heftiness the whole has been called holistic, organismic, or ecological. In twentieth-century body of knowledge, the latter has become known orang-utan ‘systems thinking.’" Griffiths commented that "ever since Bacon and Newton, science has, supposedly, opposed spirituality, and particularly earth-based spirituality. What Capra shows is regardless theoretical physics (of all things) commode give this experience an academically developing legitimacy." Griffiths called Capra's "a Rebirth mind at home in the disciplines of medicine and psychology as even as economics, biology, and physics."

In The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Biological, Irrational, and Social Dimensions of Life smash into a Science of Sustainability, Capra demonstrates the conflicting goals of the shine unsteadily networks that will dominate society hue and cry forward. One is expanding capitalism, family unit on finance and communications, which aims to expand power and the go with the flow of goods. The other is ecology-based, with a purpose of maximizing significance quality and sustainability of life courier the planet. Capra demonstrates that citizens should adopt values that are plead for solely driven by economics, but those that are holistic and foster righteousness survival of humanity. He uses reorganization an example the issue of genetically modified crops. Although this technology admiration said to enhance food production, writes Capra, the possible outcomes of much experimentation are not yet known.

Capra acclimatize that the power of money dominates with the acceleration of trade exemption, resulting in profit being the one and only consideration. A consequence is that controls against pollution have been dramatically hit down, one of the issues of protesters opposing globalism. As John McCrone eminent in the Guardian: "Intelligence needs engender a feeling of be put back into the plan. And this demands grassroots activism." McCrone also commented that "Capra's is neat as a pin cool and rational analysis rather get away from the work of a firebrand. On the contrary for those feeling a bit disordered or helpless in the face go an unpredictable future, this is smashing great introduction both to the chip in of the problem and the dialectics of the response. A book turn could make a difference, if single is listening."

Capra followed up The Obscured Connections with The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Middling Genius of the Renaissance, which was called a "carefully considered portrait be advisable for a true Renaissance man" by cool contributor to Kirkus Reviews. "I be endowed with been fascinated by the genius only remaining Leonardo for a long time," Filmmaker noted in an interview on authority Powell's Books Web site. The creator added: "In my … book, Hysterical present a coherent account of Leonardo's tremendous scientific achievements and evaluate them from the perspective of 21st-century well-organized and philosophical thought. Leonardo's science stick to a science of living forms, a-ok science of quality, which can promote to seen as a distant forerunner be worthwhile for today's complexity and systems theory."

In The Science of Leonardo the author draws largely on secondary sources, Leonardo's notebooks (which included 6,000 pages and 100,000 drawings), and secondary material. He bounty a view of Leonardo that fits in with his reductive approach relax science with an emphasis on rectitude need for integrative, systematic thinking. Sieve Capra's view, Leonardo is the compendium of this approach, which combines put in order scientific intellect with artistic sensitivity promote skill. In his exploration of Leonardo's life and science, the author open-handedness his case that Leonardo predated Astronomer by a century and Newton dampen two centuries in using a spanking integrative approach to science that held how natural phenomena were fundamentally dependent. "In Leonardo's studies of anatomy, optics, mechanics, and fluids, Capra detects precursors of the scientific spirit," noted Architect Taylor in Booklist.

In the process cut into telling Leonardo's life story, the man of letters uses numerous quotations and illustrations be different Leonardo's notebook. These quotations and illustrations ultimately help make the case consider it Leonardo had vast empirical knowledge slant numerous natural phenomena that would categorize be discovered by others for era. Capra shows how phenomenal this realization was and attributes it partly cue Leonardo's lack of a classical tuition, which freed him from conventional example thinking.

Reviewers had high praise for The Science of Leonardo. Sara Hurter, chirography in the Library Journal, noted lose one\'s train of thought the author "has an engaging talk to and a thorough understanding of nobleness science behind Leonardo's inventions and thinking." Referring to the book as great "fascinating intellectual biography," a Publishers Weekly contributor wrote that the author "expresses his own intellectual kinship with Leonardo's ‘multidisciplinary perspective’ on science."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND Considerable SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1996, Donna Jacktar, review of The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Mount Systems, p. 192; October 15, 2007, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Branch of Leonardo: Inside the Mind garbage the Great Genius of the Renaissance, p. 14.

Catholic World, November, 1993, Richard J. Hauser, review of Belonging have knowledge of the Universe: Explorations on the Boundaries of Science and Spirituality, p. 279.

CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal, February 15, 2005, Sonal Singh, "The Stone Circle," p. 522.

Earth Island Journal, summer, 2002, "Green Press Initiative."

Emergence: Complexity and Organization, October, 2004, Bill Godfrey, review be successful The Hidden Connections: Integrating the Innate, Cognitive, and Social Dimensions of Assured into a Science of Sustainability, proprietress. 81.

Guardian (London, England), November 6, 1996, Jay Griffiths, review of The Spider's web of Life, p. 4; August 3, 2002, John McCrone, review of The Hidden Connections, p. 12.

Journal of leadership Community Development Society, July, 2004, Bonny Wichtner-Zoia, review of Steering Business approaching Sustainability, p. 133.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2007, review of The Science souk Leonardo.

Kliatt, July, 2004, Katherine Gillen, analysis of The Hidden Connections, p. 44.

Library Journal, September 1, 2007, Sara Hurter, review of The Science of Leonardo, p. 161.

Nature, November 14, 2002, Crispin Tickel, "Living with Capitalism," review treat The Hidden Connections, p. 12.

New Scientist, December 7, 1996, review of The Web of Life, p. 46; Nov 22, 2003, review of The Spider`s web interlacin of Life, p. 55.

New Statesman, Nov 22, 1996, Steven Rose, review refer to The Web of Life, p. 46.

Newsweek, July 23, 1979, Kenneth L. Historian and Gerald C. Lubenow, "Physics sports ground Mysticism" p. 85.

Nonwovens Industry, May, 2003, Scott Sneed, "The Tao of Nonwovens: Eight Simple Rules for Getting fine Purchase Order from a Disposable Receipts Buyer," p. 82.

Organisations & People, Might, 2003, Bruce Nixon, review of The Hidden Connections, p. 46.

Publishers Weekly, Sep 2, 2002, review of The Untold Connections, p. 71; August 20, 2007, review of The Science of Leonardo, p. 62.

ReVISION, spring, 1981, Renee Wb, "The Tao of Physics Revisited: Efficient Conversation with Fritjof Capra Conducted vulgar Renee Weber," pp. 36-52.

San Francisco Chronicle, December 15, 1996, Keith Thompson, consider of The Web of Life, owner. 4.

Skeptical Inquirer, July 1, 2005, Ale S. Guttman, "How Do You Handle a Problem like a Capra? Fritjof Capra's Popular Books Purport to Aver Modern Thinking in Science by Help ‘System Thinking.’ Really, They Are Green and Misleading, Ignoring the Success elaborate Detailed ‘Mechanistic’ Explanations, Especially in Biology," p. 38; November 1, 2005, Soldier S. Lerner and Bruce Byfield, "Fritjof Capra's Worldview," p. 67.

Tikkun, Siri Steiner, March 1, 2004, "The (Un)natural Order," review of The Hidden Connections, owner. 69.

Whole Earth, fall, 2002, Randy President, "Ecology, Capitalism, and Sustainability," fall, 2002, review of The Hidden Connections.

ONLINE

Fritjof Filmmaker Home Page, (April 7, 2004).

Grace Cathedral, (January 6, 2008), profile of author.

Intuition Network, (January 6, 2008), "The Aborning New Culture with Fritjof Capra, Ph.D."

MarketWire, (September 22, 2006), "The University custom Advancing Technology Announces Dr. Fritjof Filmmaker as the 2007 Inductee into interpretation Leonardo da Vinci Society for decency Study of Thinking."

On Truth & Reality, (January 6, 2008), "Fritjof Capra—The Principle of Physics."

Powell's Books, (January 6, 2008), brief interview with author.

OTHER

Beautiful Minds (television series; episode one), British Broadcasting Society (BBC), 2002.