L’alleanza dei saperi nella biologia umanistica di Van Rensselaer Potter

Van Potter’s humanistic biology is an exemplary case of the alliance of knowledge, consistent with the idea of the complexity theorist Edgar Morin, who calls for a paradigmatic revolution in thought. It is now necessary to take a complex and interdisciplinary focus capable of grasping the fundamental and global current problems and bridging scientific and humanistic disciplines. A different epistemological basis for ethics must be attempted, starting from the awareness of the real condition of the human being, as deeply rooted in the ecosystem, in order to mature a biological wisdom capable of stemming the effects of dangerous knowledge. Bioethics, therefore, aims to combine biological facts and human values.