Overview
Holism is the principle that a system’s properties cannot be fully determined or explained by its component parts alone. The whole has emergent properties that arise from the interactions between parts — properties that are absent from any individual part.
The term was coined by Jan Smuts in Holism and Evolution (1926), in contrast to reductionism, which explains phenomena by breaking them into simpler constituent parts.
Applications
- Medicine: Holistic health addresses the whole person — physical, mental, emotional, social dimensions — rather than treating isolated symptoms
- Ecology: Ecosystems are studied as wholes, not as independent species lists
- Systems science: Complex adaptive systems exhibit emergent behaviors invisible at the component level
- Design: Holistic design considers the full lifecycle and social context of a product
Related
- Systems Thinking — The practice of thinking holistically about system behavior
- Complexity Science — Scientific study of emergent and complex phenomena
- Health and Wellbeing — Holistic approaches to human health