Holism
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- | In [[philosophy]], '''ontology''' (from the [[Greek language|Greek]]: ''of being'' and ''science'', ''study'', ''theory'') is the study of [[being]] or [[existence]] and forms the basic subject matter of [[metaphysics]]. It seeks to describe or posit the [[category of being|basic categories]] and relationships of being or existence to define [[entity|entities]] and [[type theory|types of entities]] within its framework. | ||
- | Ontology can be said to study conceptions of [[reality]]; and, for the sake of distinction, at least to the extent to which its counterpart, [[epistemology]] can be represented as being a search for answers to the questions "What do you know?" and "How do you know it?", ontology can be represented as a search for an answer to the question "What are the knowable things?". | + | '''Holism''' is the idea that natural [[system]]s (physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, [[Linguistics|linguistic]], etc.) and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not as collections of parts. This often includes the view that systems function as wholes and that their functioning cannot be fully understood solely in terms of their component parts. The term ''holism'' is derived from [[Ancient Greek]] ''holos'' ''[[ὅλος]]'', meaning "all, whole, entire, total." |
- | Some philosophers, notably of the [[Plato]]nic school, contend that all nouns refer to entities. Other philosophers contend that some nouns do not name entities but provide a kind of shorthand way of referring to a collection (of either objects or events). In this latter view, ''[[mind]]'', instead of referring to an entity, refers to a collection of ''mental events'' experienced by a person; ''[[society]]'' refers to a collection of persons with some shared interactions, and ''[[geometry]]'' refers to a collection of a specific kind of intellectual activity. | + | [[Reductionism]] is often viewed as the opposite of holism. Reductionism in science says that a complex system can be explained by ''reduction'' to its fundamental parts. For example, the processes of biology are reducible to chemistry and the laws of chemistry are explained by physics. |
- | Any ontology must give an account of which words refer to entities, which do not, why, and what categories result. When one applies this process to nouns such as ''[[electron]]s'', ''[[energy]]'', ''[[contract]]'', ''[[happiness]]'', ''[[time]]'', ''[[truth]]'', ''[[causality]]'', and ''[[God]]'', ontology becomes fundamental to many branches of philosophy. | + | |
- | ==See also== | + | == See also == |
- | * [[Cosmology]] | + | *[[Antiscience]] |
- | * [[Epistemology]] | + | *[[Determinism]] |
- | * [[Holism]] | + | *[[Emergentism]] |
- | * [[Metaphysics]] | + | *[[Gaia hypothesis]] |
- | * [[Nihilism]] | + | *[[Gross National Happiness]] |
- | * [[Philosophy of science]] | + | *[[Holarchy]] |
- | * [[Schema]] | + | *[[Holism in ecological anthropology]] |
- | * [[Solipsism]] | + | *[[Service-oriented modeling framework#Service-oriented modeling framework .28SOMF.29|Holistic modeling language]] |
- | * [[Taxonomy]] | + | *[[Holon (philosophy)]] |
- | * [[Theology]] | + | *[[Janus]] |
+ | *[[Logical holism]] | ||
+ | *[[Organicism]] | ||
+ | *[[G. E. Moore#Organic wholes|Organic wholes]] | ||
+ | *[[Organismic theory]] | ||
+ | *[[Panarchy]] | ||
+ | *[[Polytely]] | ||
+ | *[[Synergetics (Fuller)|Synergetics]] | ||
+ | *[[Synergy]] | ||
+ | *[[Systems theory]] | ||
+ | |||
+ | *'''Writers:''' | ||
+ | **[[Christopher Alexander]] | ||
+ | **[[Buckminster Fuller]] | ||
+ | **[[Arthur Koestler]] | ||
+ | **[[Howard T. Odum]] | ||
+ | **[[Allan Savory]] | ||
+ | **[[Herbert A. Simon]] | ||
+ | **[[Ken Wilber]] | ||
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Holism is the idea that natural systems (physical, biological, chemical, social, economic, mental, linguistic, etc.) and their properties should be viewed as wholes, not as collections of parts. This often includes the view that systems function as wholes and that their functioning cannot be fully understood solely in terms of their component parts. The term holism is derived from Ancient Greek holos ὅλος, meaning "all, whole, entire, total."
Reductionism is often viewed as the opposite of holism. Reductionism in science says that a complex system can be explained by reduction to its fundamental parts. For example, the processes of biology are reducible to chemistry and the laws of chemistry are explained by physics.
See also
- Antiscience
- Determinism
- Emergentism
- Gaia hypothesis
- Gross National Happiness
- Holarchy
- Holism in ecological anthropology
- Holistic modeling language
- Holon (philosophy)
- Janus
- Logical holism
- Organicism
- Organic wholes
- Organismic theory
- Panarchy
- Polytely
- Synergetics
- Synergy
- Systems theory
- Writers: