Leonardo da Vinci, complexity science, education reform, and the role of creativity

 

   Keynote SABI 2023. Centro Cultural Kirchner (CCK)

Leonardo da Vinci stands as the pinnacle of the Italian Renaissance, a transdisciplinary creator in the broadest sense of the term. He not only covered a vast array of knowledge but also possessed a global perspective on learning and understanding. Starting at the age of 26, he began recording his observations, reflections, and conclusions in notebooks, now known as codices. In them, we witness a seemingly scattered yet fundamentally unifying creative process. He viewed the issues he studied from a multitude of angles, always keeping sight of his ultimate goal. His notebooks are brimming with observations of the environment, displaying a deep reverence for nature. Yet this was not passive admiration; he engaged with the mystery of the creative possibilities he found in his surroundings.

In over 7,200 pages of these notes and sketches, we find comments and drawings on various subjects, intermingled in what appears to be an apparently random manner, suggesting a mind of extraordinary curiosity. Towards the end of his life, Leonardo drew a deluge, a wild and chaotic flood of boiling water with steam, whirlpools, and turbulence. This was a notable departure for the man who meticulously painted visions like the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper. Unlike his more scientific drawings of water, there is no accompanying text explaining the meaning behind the drawings. There is no cause shown for why the water moves the way it does. Leonardo may have been the first to use the word 'turbulence,' as mirrored in his notebooks, where he wrote 'aznelobrut' to describe the chaotic flow of water. But what is turbulence — the whirlpools in the Tuscan stream or the stomach discomfort during a plane flight — if not disorder, uncertainty? That is, ENTROPY? Entropy is our destiny. Leonardo enjoyed drawing swirls with spirals at their ends because he saw the spiral as an archetype of turbulent flows and, in general, as a symbol of life. According to him, the dynamics of the spiral vortex, simultaneously stable and constantly changing, represented all forms of life.

The science of complexity focuses on the study of systems composed of numerous diverse components that interact in complex and non-linear ways. It employs a reflexive strategy rather than a reductionist one, encompassing the multitude of elements and relationships that define us as human beings. It is inclusive, valuing diversity and recognizing individuality. My flagship approach is to prepare students to navigate complexity and cultivate antifragility, envisioning the student as a holistic entity, embedded in their environment, endowed with transversal cognitive abilities, and possessing the organizational potential necessary to face chaos and uncertainty. This approach recognizes that a student's skills and potential extend beyond academic realms to their broader environment. It emphasizes adaptability and resilience, providing a robust framework for navigating complex and unpredictable situations. Educational reform requires a profoundly insightful shift in thinking. It underscores the importance of cultivating a mindset capable of interconnecting various aspects of reality, offering a holistic perspective while acknowledging individual nuances. This approach not only enhances our understanding of complex systems but also promotes a more inclusive and adaptable approach to education. Embracing this shift in paradigmatic thinking is essential for unlocking the true potential of educational reform in our ever-evolving world.

It is important to remember the founding fathers of Western science: Galileo Galilei, Newton, Francis Bacon, Descartes, and others. The central axis for building the new world was rooted in the will to power, as Nietzsche identified, and let's say the Frankfurt School. Leonardo da Vinci's science cannot be understood within the mechanistic paradigm of Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. Far from being a mere machine, nature in general bears a much closer resemblance to the human condition: unpredictable, sensitive to the external world, and susceptible to small fluctuations. According to Leonardo, the appropriate approach to interacting with nature and learning from its complexity and beauty is not through domination and control, but through respect, cooperation, and dialogue, as accurately articulated in his Codices. According to Leonardo Boff, central countries exercised their will over controlled nature, extracting its resources and services limitlessly. They dominated matter down to its smallest particles. They even unraveled the secrets of life, decoding the genetic code and manipulating genes. Leonardo da Vinci's thinking serves as an antidote to this form of voracity and dispossession, as he could be considered what we now call a systemic thinker. Complex thinking unfolds in a systemic process, devoid of linear causality, where cause acts upon effect and effect upon cause, in a feedback loop characterized by self-regulation. Furthermore, it incorporates antagonistic yet complementary phenomena in the process, along with the concept of uncertainty, which equips us to face chance. This, in turn, cultivates heuristic skills that foster creativity. It is essential to incorporate the notion of instability into our understanding of the universe. Instead of being paralyzed by this instability, we must seek to understand its underlying causes. This approach allows us to comprehensively describe the intricate nature of the world and urges us to consider the best way to interact with it. As Karl Popper rightly pointed out, there is a science that deals with precise and predictable mechanisms (like clocks) and another that confronts the unpredictable and complex (like clouds). Having explored the former, it is now imperative to delve into the latter.

As Prigogine coined, we are witnessing a new dialogue between humans and nature. Today, the appropriate way to approach nature to learn from its complexity and beauty is not through domination and control, but through respect, cooperation, and dialogue. Leonardo anticipated this approach to dealing with instabilities because his science began with an analysis of life. For him, the world was sensitive matter, a living being in continuous transformation. Leonardo is the Holy Grail guiding us towards the new conception of the modern world, where biomedical engineering, dealing with life, must draw inspiration from this paradigm in classrooms, laboratories, and industries. Capra (2008) has identified him as a forger of modern science, one that does not settle for the established, but questions freely and constantly, rethinking, probing without fear of contradictions or uncertainty. This concept aligns with the pedagogical approaches of Edgar Morin (1999), who expresses the need to provide our students with more uncertainties and fewer certainties, stimulating curiosity and motivation towards experimentation and discovery.

It is important to return to the message conveyed by Edgar Morin (2001), where he proposes an educational reform based on Complexity Theory, fundamentally critiquing the fragmentation of knowledge, considering it an inhibiting factor in learning. If we want academic knowledge to be dynamic, creativity must play a more significant role in educational practice, without fear of complexity or uncertainty. Changes in the university pedagogical model should be oriented towards a shift in thinking, moving from the disjointed and reductionist towards the development of complex thinking, allowing future professionals to navigate creatively in various performance areas, possibly dealing with challenges that may not even exist at the time of their graduation