Holism

Holism is an interdisciplinary concept suggesting that systems can have properties as complete entities that are not found in their individual components. A common way to sum this up is the saying, "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts." This idea can shape how research is done across many scientific fields and also influences various lifestyle approaches. When holistic methods reveal features of an entire system that go beyond what its parts alone would suggest, those features are called emergent properties. Holism is frequently contrasted with reductionism, a major viewpoint in the philosophy of science which holds that systems made of parts have no special properties beyond those parts. Supporters of holism argue that the search for emergent properties within systems proves their perspective is valid.

The word "holism" was created by Jan Smuts (1870–1950) in his 1926 book *Holism and Evolution*. Smuts never gave the term a single, fixed meaning, but he used it to describe at least three aspects of reality. First, holism claims that every scientifically measurable thing—whether physical or psychological—has a nature as a whole that goes beyond its parts. He gave examples like atoms, cells, or a person's personality. Smuts discussed this sense of holism when he argued that a person's body and mind are not completely separate but are connected, representing the holistic idea of a human being. In his second sense, Smuts used holism to explain the cause of evolution. He believed evolution is neither accidental nor driven by a transcendent force like God. He criticized writers who emphasized Darwinian natural selection and genetic variation to support a view of natural processes as random. Smuts saw evolution as nature’s way of creatively and intentionally correcting itself. In this view, holism is the tendency of a whole system to respond creatively to environmental pressures, with parts naturally working together to move the whole toward more advanced states. He used Pavlovian studies to argue that inherited behavioral changes support his idea of creative evolution, rather than purely accidental development. Smuts thought this creative process was built into all physical systems of parts and ruled out indirect, transcendent forces. Finally, Smuts used holism to explain the concrete (nontranscendent) nature of the universe as a whole. He described holism as "the ultimate synthetic, ordering, organizing, regulative activity in the universe which accounts for all the structural groupings and syntheses in it." He argued that a holistic view explains the universe’s processes and evolution better than a reductive one. Professional philosophers of science and linguists did not take *Holism and Evolution* seriously when it first came out in 1926, and the work has been criticized for lacking theoretical coherence. However, some biological scientists gave it favorable reviews shortly after publication. Over time, the meaning of "holism" became most closely tied to Smuts’ first definition, though without the metaphysical commitments to monism, dualism, or similar ideas that can be inferred from his work.

In physics, holism refers to the nonseparability of physical systems from their parts, especially in quantum phenomena. Classical physics is not considered holistic because the behavior of individual parts represents the whole. But in quantum theory, the state of a system resists a certain kind of reductive analysis. For instance, two spatially separated quantum systems can be described as "entangled," or nonseparable, when analyzing one system is indistinguishable from analyzing the other. Different conceptions of nonseparability exist in physics, and exploring them is thought to offer insight into the nature of reality. In one sense, holism in physics is a methodological claim that systems are best understood by their properties as a whole. A methodological reductionist might try to explain a liquid’s behavior by studying its molecules, atoms, or ions, while a methodological holist believes this approach is misguided. One condensed matter physicist argued that the most important advances come from new concepts at intermediate or macroscopic levels—concepts compatible with information about microscopic parts but not logically dependent on it. This view is considered common among contemporary physicists. In another sense, holism is a metaphysical claim that a system’s nature is not determined by its parts’ properties. There are three varieties: ontological holism (some systems are not just made of their physical parts), property holism (some systems have properties independent of their physical parts), and nomological holism (some systems follow physical laws beyond those of their parts). This metaphysical claim does not say systems involve abstract properties beyond their physical composition, but rather that there are concrete properties aside from those of their basic physical parts. Theoretical physicist David Bohm (1917–1992) directly supported this view.