Learning from Leonardo; Decoding the Notebooks of a Genius

Fritjof Capra

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English

Berrett-Koehler
19 November 2013

Philosophy of science; Popular science; Ecological science, the Biosphere

""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.

By: Fritjof Capra
Imprint: Berrett-Koehler
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 243mm, Width: 165mm, Spine: 35mm
Weight: 822g
ISBN: 9781609949891
ISBN 10: 1609949897
Pages: 408
Publication Date: 19 November 2013
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface Timeline of Scientific Discoveries Prologue: Leonardo's Genius I. Form and Transformation in the Macrocosm 1. The Movements of Water 2. The Living Earth 3. The Growth of Plants II. Form and Transformation in the Human Body 4. The Human Figure 5. The Elements of Mechanics 6. The Body in Motion 7. The Science of Flight 8. The Mystery of Life Coda: Leonardo's Legacy Chronology of Leonardo's Life and Work Color plates Notes Leonardo's Notebooks: Facsimiles and Transcriptions Bibliography Resources for Leonardo Scholarship Acknowledgments Photographic Credits Index About the Author

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.

Reviews for Learning from Leonardo; Decoding the Notebooks of a Genius

This remarkable exposition of Leonardo's work provides in analysis and illustration not only the nature of genius but the intellectual epic that can unfold whenever the human mind is set free. --Edward o. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University, and author of the best-selling The Social Conquest of Earth and Letters to a Young Scientist In this meticulously crafted work, Capra leads us into the mind and heart of Leonardo so that we experience firsthand his relentless curiosity, his desire to understand the living world on its own terms, his willingness to let go of treasured ideas and concepts in exchange for new ones. Journeying so intimately with Leonardo has given me a rich appreciation for the qualities of a Renaissance person, and what shines through above all is Leonardo's never-faltering love for that which he was observing: this beautiful, interwoven, life-sustaining planet. --Margaret Wheatley, author of So Far from Home and Leadership and the New Science