Istituto Luigi Sturzo - Presentazione del libro:

by CHAOS Staff

The anthropological transformation that has been taking place for some time, in addition to the urgency of a “new epistemology” and the limited effectiveness of theoretical-interpretive apparatuses, opens up uncertain and indefinable scenarios, bringing out what is unobservable and making our limitations even more evident. Thus, the obsolescence of theories, epistemologies, paradigms and the radical inadequacy of the system of thought emerge. Not surprisingly, the Mechanism-Society, built on technocracy and technoscience, intends to eliminate error and unpredictability from systems, ecosystems, and life, believing that it can predict and, even, pre-determine any process. And, a civilization of this kind, increasingly programmed and automated in every aspect, innervated with connections and simulation processes, as well as delegating everything to technology and specialisms, cannot but have as its main goal precisely that of marginalizing the Human - the bearer of error and unpredictability - and the space, social and cultural, of responsibility. The Mechanism-Society is rooted in illusory and self-defeating certainties, which do not consider the strategic relevance of error and unpredictability and which continue to be supported by exclusive recourse to those technical knowledge and skills that appear most capable of confirming and reinforcing the paradigm of efficiency and rationality. The extraordinary scientific discoveries and technological innovations of the last few decades, in addition to having given us the possibility of ever better control over the mechanisms of our biological evolution, have brought us into the time of maximum unpredictability, obsolescence and uncertainty. Dimensions, by now, even existential. This time, the paradigm shift is so profound and irreversible that it forces us to rethink/redefine everything, even the very concept of science; a Science that can only open itself to the study and understanding of the unobservable and the indeterminate.

Piero Dominici (PhD), sociologist and philosopher, is associate professor at the University of Perugia. Among numerous international awards and assignments, he is UNESCO IPL Expert and UN Invited Expert and Speaker. An expert of the JRC Group - European Commission, a Fellow of World Academy of Art & Science, IETI and Complex Systems Society, he is Scientific Director of CHAOS (2011). He has taught and lectured at many international universities and participates in projects of international significance. He is a referee for prestigious scientific journals around the world and has been working on complex systems, social science epistemology, and unpredictability education for almost thirty years. He is the author of volumes and numerous scientific articles.

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