Learning from Leonardo; Decoding the Notebooks of a Genius

Fritjof Capra

ISBN 10: 1609949897 / ISBN 13: 9781609949891

Editore: Berrett-Koehler, 2013

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"This remarkable exposition of Leonardo's work" illuminates how he was centuries ahead of his time-and the lessons we can learn from his style of thought (Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University). Leonardo da Vinci was a brilliant artist, scientist, engineer, mathematician, architect, and inventor. But he was also, Fritjof Capra argues, a profoundly modern man. Capra's decade-long study of Leonardo's fabled notebooks reveal him as a "systems thinker" centuries before the term was coined. Leonardo believed the key to understanding the world was in perceiving the connections between phenomena and the larger patterns formed by those relationships. Seeing the world as a dynamic, integrated whole, Leonardo often used concepts from one area to illuminate problems in another. For example, his studies of the movement of water informed his ideas about how landscapes are shaped, how sap rises in plants, how air moves over a bird's wing, and how blood flows in the human body. His observations of nature enhanced his art, his drawings were integral to his scientific studies and architectural designs. Capra describes seven defining characteristics of Leonardo da Vinci's genius and includes a list of over forty discoveries Leonardo made that weren't rediscovered until centuries later. His overview of Leonardo's thought follows the organizational scheme Leonardo himself intended to use if he ever published his notebooks. So in a sense, this is Leonardo's science as he himself would have presented it.

Codice articolo CIN1609949897G

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Learning from Leonardo; Decoding the Notebooks of a Genius
• Editore: Berrett-Koehler
• Data di pubblicazione: 2013
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 1609949897
• ISBN 13: 9781609949891
• Rilegatura: Hardback
• Condizione: Good

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Leonardo da Vinci was a brilliant artist, scientist, engineer, mathematician, architect, inventor, and even musician—the archetypal Renaissance man. But he was also a profoundly modern man.

Not only did Leonardo invent the empirical scientific method over a century before Galileo and Francis Bacon, but Capra’s decade-long study of Leonardo’s fabled notebooks reveals that he was a systems thinker centuries before the term was coined. At the very core of Leonardo’s science, Capra argues, lies his persistent quest for understanding the nature of life. His science is a science of living forms, of qualities and patterns, radically different from the mechanistic science that emerged 200 years later.

Because he saw the world as an integrated whole, Leonardo always applied concepts from one area to illuminate problems in another. His studies of the movement of water informed his ideas about how landscapes are shaped, how sap rises in plants, how air moves over a bird’s wing, and how blood flows in the human body. His observations of nature enhanced his art, his drawings were integral to his scientific studies, and he brought art, science, and technology together in his beautiful and elegant mechanical and architectural designs.

Capra describes seven defining characteristics of Leonardo da Vinci’s genius and includes a list of over forty discoveries he made that weren’t rediscovered until centuries later. Capra follows the organizational scheme Leonardo himself intended to use if he ever published his notebooks. So in a sense, this is Leonardo’s science as he himself would have presented it.

Obviously, we can’t all be geniuses on the scale of Leonardo da Vinci. But his persistent endeavor to put life at the very center of his art, science, and design and his recognition that all natural phenomena are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent are important lessons we can learn from. By exploring the mind of the preeminent Renaissance genius, we can gain profound insights into how to address the complex challenges of the 21st century.

Informazioni sull'autore

Fritjof Capra, PhD, physicist and systems theorist, is a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy. Capra is on the faculty of Schumacher College in England and frequently gives management seminars for top executives. He is the author of several international bestsellers, including The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, The Web of Life, The Hidden Connections, and The Science of Leonardo.