In this short and widely hailed masterpiece, Edgar Morin, one of the leading figures in European thought, challenges us to think differently about our past, our present, and our future. Morin points to the development of a planetary culture that is not homogenizing or fragmented, and the need to recognize complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity as potential sources of creativity, learning, and transformation. Given the uncertainty of our journey, Morin presents ""complex thought"" as a way to overcome the ""crisis of the future,"" and stresses the importance of solidarity. This book is a passionate and compelling summation of Morin's synthetic vision of our planetary history and collective destiny. What most distinguishes it is the manner in which it sustains a truly planetary perspective on the complex factors- ecological, technological, social, psychological- which might facilitate, as they threaten to abort, a nascent humanity.