Holism

Holism from  holos, a Greek word meaning all, whole, entire, total 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 somehow function as wholes and that their functioning cannot be fully understood solely in terms of their component parts.Oshry, Barry 2008. Seeing systems: unlocking the mysteries of organizational life. Berrett-Koehler.Auyang, Sunny Y. 1999. Foundations of complex-system theories: in economics, evolutionary biology, and statistical physics. Cambridge University Press.

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.

Social scientist and physician Nicholas A. Christakis explains that "for the last few centuries, the Cartesian project in science has been to break matter down into ever smaller bits, in the pursuit of understanding. And this works, to some extent...but putting things back together in order to understand them is harder, and typically comes later in the development of a scientist or in the development of science".

 Related pages 
Gestalt psychology
Interdisciplinarity
Theory of everything

 References 

Category:Philosophical movements and positions