At the beginning of the 20th century, Morin's family migrated from the Ottoman city of Salonica (Thessaloniki) to Marseille[12] and later to Paris, where Edgar was born.

In 1945, Morin married Irène "Violette" Chapellaubeau and they lived in Landau, where he served as a lieutenant in the French Occupation army in Germany.

Due to his critical posture, his relationship with the party gradually deteriorated until he was expelled in 1951 after he published an article in L'Observateur politique, économique et littéraire.

[15] Also in 1960 Morin and Jean Rouch coauthored the film Chronique d'un été, an early example of cinéma vérité and direct cinema.

Beginning in 1965, Morin became involved in a large multidisciplinary project, financed by the Délégation Générale à la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique in Plozévet.

He followed the student revolt closely and wrote a second series of articles in Le Monde called "The Revolution without a Face," as well as coauthoring Mai 68: La brèche with Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort.

He read Henri Laborit, James Watson, Stéphane Lupasco, Bronowski, and was introduced to the thought of Gregory Bateson and the "new problematic in ecology".

[19] Edgar Morin is not only the originator of the concept of polycrisis but also a leading figure in developing a framework for understanding the interconnectedness and complexity of global phenomena.

The term polycrisis, first introduced by Edgar Morin, describes a situation in which multiple crises—environmental, social, economic, and political—are interconnected, amplifying each other’s impacts.

This concept is deeply rooted in Morin's work, particularly in Terre-Patrie[20] (1993) (Homeland Earth: A Manifesto for the New Millennium[21], 1999), where he explores how the global ecological crisis is inseparable from broader systemic issues such as inequality, governance failures, and cultural fragmentation.

This concept emphasizes the self-organizing capacity of systems, coupled with their interaction with their environment (eco) and their ability to reorganize in response to challenges (re-organization).

He advocates for education that fosters: Edgar Morin’s work on polycrisis and complex thought provides a vital intellectual toolkit for navigating the challenges of an interconnected and uncertain world.

However, Morin's work spans scholarly and popular literature, and he has appeared on the cover of multiple publications including Sciences Humaines[24] and a special issue of Le Monde.