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Holism (from Greek ''holos'' "all, whole, entire") is the idea that 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.〔.〕〔.〕 Holism is a form of antireductionism, which is the complement of reductionism. Reductionism analyzes a complex system by subdividing or ''reduction'' to more 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."〔.〕 ==History== The term "holism" was coined in 1926 by Jan Smuts, a South African statesman, in his book ''Holism and Evolution''.〔Jan Smuts (1926). ''Holism and Evolution''. London: McMillan and Co Limited. p. 88.〕 Smuts defined holism as the "tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater than the sum of the parts through creative evolution".〔Oxford English Dictionary (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. September 2005.〕 Examples of holism can be found throughout human history and in the most diverse sociocultural contexts. The French Protestant missionary Maurice Leenhardt coined the term "cosmomorphism" to indicate the state of perfect symbiosis with the surrounding environment which characterized the culture of the Melanesians of New Caledonia. For these people, an isolated individual is totally indeterminate, indistinct, and featureless until he can find his position within the natural and social world in which he is inserted. The confines between the self and the world are annulled to the point that the material body itself is no guarantee of the sort of recognition of identity which is typical of our own culture.〔Anne Bihan, ("The Writer, a Man Without Qualities" ), ''Literature and Identity in New Caledonia''.〕〔Susan Rasmussen, ("Personahood, Self, Difference, and Dialogue (Commentary on Chaudhary)" ), ''International Journal for Dialogical Science'', Fall 2008, Vol. 3, No. 1, 31-54.〕 The concept of holism played a pivotal role in Baruch Spinoza's philosophy〔Charles Huenemann, ''Interpreting Spinoza: Critical Essays,'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008, p. 41〕〔Eccy De Jonge, ''Spinoza and Deep Ecology: Challenging Traditional Approaches to Environmentalism'', UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2003, p. 65〕 and more recently in that of Hegel〔Robert Stern, ''Hegel, Kant and the Structure of the Object'', London: Routledge, 1990, p. 6 & p. 135〕〔Merold Westphal, ''Hegel, Freedom, and Modernity,'' New York: SUNY, 1992, pp.79-81, & p. 86〕 and Edmund Husserl.〔Michael Esfield, ''Holism in Philosophy of Mind and Philosophy of Physics'', Springer, 2001, p. 7〕〔Johanna Maria Tito, ''Logic in the Husserlian Context'', Northwestern University Press, 1990, p. 245〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「holism」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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