Patterns of Connection: Essential Essays from Five Decades

Description: Winner of the Silver Medal for Environment/Ecology in the 2022 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Book Awards

Fritjof Capra, scientist, educator, activist, and accomplished author, presents the evolution of his thought over five decades in Patterns of Connection. First introduced in the late 1950s to the work of Werner Heisenberg, a founder of quantum mechanics, Capra quickly intuited the connections between the discoveries of quantum physics and the traditions of Eastern philosophy--resulting in his first book, the bestselling The Tao of Physics. This synthesis, representative of the change from the mechanistic worldview of Descartes and Newton to a systemic, ecological one, went on to inform Capra's thinking about the life sciences, ecology, and environmental policy. His observations of sustainable communities in nature inspired his work on systems theory--the complex web of interrelated processes that organize everything from biological systems to social, cultural, and political systems.

Today Fritjof Capra remains a major figure at the crossroads of physics, spirituality, environmentalism, and systems theory. Organized thematically and chronologically, the essays in Patterns of Connection document the revolutionary and far-reaching intellectual journey of one of the major public thinkers of the last half-century.

Brief description: Fritjof Capra is the recipient of many awards, including the Gold Medal of the UK Systems Society, the Medal of the President of the Italian Republic, the Bioneers Award, the New Dimensions Broadcaster Award, and the American Book Award. He became universally known for his book The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, which explored the ways in which modern physics was changing our worldview from a mechanistic to a holistic and ecological one. Capra lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and daughter.

Review Quotes: "This book is a gift to those who now benefit from Capra's rigorous, decades-long process of integration, demonstrating his pivotal role in the development of a new conceptual paradigm that offers a potential pathway for humanity's future flourishing."--Jeremy Lent, author of The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity's Search for Meaning and The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to find Our Place in the Universe