This is an anthology which presents the original texts of the interdisciplinary scholarly direction "synergetics", the science of complex self-organizing systems. Among the contributors to this book are: I. Prigogine, G. Haken, W. Ebeling, K. Mainzer, E. Morin, J. Petitot. Introductory article, short biographical articles, and article about view of F.J. Varela by E.N. Kniazeva