Holism () is the idea that various

system A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...

s (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by

Jan Smuts Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, (24 May 1870 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Af ...

in his 1926 book ''

Holism and Evolution ''Holism and Evolution'' is a 1926 book by South African statesman Jan Smuts, in which he coined the word " holism", although Smuts' meaning differs from the modern concept of holism. Smuts defined holism as the "fundamental factor operative tow ...

''."holism, n." OED Online,

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, September 2019, www.oed.com/view/Entry/87726. Accessed 23 October 2019. While his ideas had racist connotations, the modern use of the word generally refers to treating a person as an integrated whole, rather than as a collection of separate systems. For example, well-being may be regarded as not merely physical health, but also psychological and spiritual well-being.

Meaning

The exact meaning of "holism" depends on context. Jan Smuts originally used "holism" to refer to the tendency in nature to produce wholes from the ordered grouping of unit structures. However, in common usage, "holism" usually refers to the idea that a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.J. C. Poynton (1987) SMUTS'S HOLISM AND EVOLUTION SIXTY YEARS ON, Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 46:3, 181-189, DOI:10.1080/00359198709520121 In this sense, "holism" may also be spelled "wholism" (although the two are not etymologically related), and it may be contrasted with

reductionism Reductionism is any of several related philosophical ideas regarding the associations between phenomena which can be described in terms of other simpler or more fundamental phenomena. It is also described as an intellectual and philosophical pos ...

atomism Atomism (from Greek , ''atomon'', i.e. "uncuttable, indivisible") is a natural philosophy proposing that the physical universe is composed of fundamental indivisible components known as atoms. References to the concept of atomism and its atoms ...

Practices

The term holistic when applied to

diet Diet may refer to: Food * Diet (nutrition), the sum of the food consumed by an organism or group * Dieting, the deliberate selection of food to control body weight or nutrient intake ** Diet food, foods that aid in creating a diet for weight loss ...

refers to an

intuitive Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognition; ...

approach to

food Food is any substance consumed by an organism for nutritional support. Food is usually of plant, animal, or fungal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals. The substance is inge ...

eating Eating (also known as consuming) is the ingestion of food, typically to provide a heterotrophic organism with energy and to allow for growth. Animals and other heterotrophs must eat in order to survive — carnivores eat other animals, herbi ...

, or

lifestyle Lifestyle often refers to: * Lifestyle (sociology), the way a person lives * ''Otium'', ancient Roman concept of a lifestyle * Style of life (german: Lebensstil, link=no), dealing with the dynamics of personality Lifestyle may also refer to: Bu ...

. One example is in the context of

holistic nursing Holistic nursing is a way of treating and taking care the patient as a whole body which involves physical, social environment, psychological, cultural and religious beliefs. There are many theories that support the importance of nurses approaching ...

, where "holism" refers to assessment of a person's health, including psychological and societal factors, rather than only their physical conditions or symptoms. In this sense, holism may also be called "holiatry." Some religious institutions practice a holistic dietary and health approach, such as

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

and the

Seventh-day Adventist Church The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, and ...

Philosophy

philosophy of science Philosophy of science is a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods, and implications of science. The central questions of this study concern what qualifies as science, the reliability of scientific theories, and the ultim ...

logical holism In Philosophy, logical holism is the belief that the world operates in such a way that no part can be known without the whole being known first. Theoretical holism is a theory in philosophy of science, that a theory of science can only be underst ...

is the concept that a theory can only be understood in its entirety. This has also been called methodological holism. Similarly, semantic holism makes the claim that meaningful statements about complex phenomena cannot be reduced to the actions of individuals. Michael Esfeld has suggested that holism is opposed to

analytic philosophy Analytic philosophy is a branch and tradition of philosophy using analysis, popular in the Western world and particularly the Anglosphere, which began around the turn of the 20th century in the contemporary era in the United Kingdom, United Sta ...

, "holism with respect to intentional phenomena is widespread among analytic philosophers".

Physics

Holism in physics refers to the inseparability of certain phenomena, especially quantum phenomena. Classical physics cannot be regarded as holistic, as the behavior of individual parts represents the whole. However, the state of a system in quantum theory resists similar analysis. The quantum state of a system is often described as 'entangled', and thus inseparable for meaningful analysis.

References

External links

* Philosophical theories Natural philosophy Philosophy of science Social theories Emergence Jan Smuts {{science-philo-stub