Mind the gap: Bridging the two cultures with complex thought

Robert Rosen's work has implications for biology and the natural sciences, but also for vital issues in society, economics and politics. Today's dominant knowledge paradigm and Anthropocene crisis are two sides of one coin: extant flaws of modern thought are part and parcel of the economic and political ideas and institutions driving both social and environmental global crises. Rosennean relational biology and Morinian complex thought shift the knowledge paradigm from modernity towards complexity, working to transcend the ontological flaws underlying the sciences to better grasp and address the social drivers of global crises. Rosen's work bridges gaps between physics and biology, and between the sciences and humanities. Rosen's work indicates that the dominant posture of monist physicalism must be transcended with a more pluralist methodological articulation within and across disciplines. I focus on just three concepts that help to evoke and advance Rosennean complexity throughout the sciences and humanities: paradox, pluralism, and perspectivism. These three concepts help to demonstrate how Rosen's work advances biology, but also, more broadly, how to more fully make crucial bridges across the two cultures gap, articulate transdisciplinary knowledge, and thus advance social, economic and political dimensions of urgent societal transition. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.