The Name "Holos"

Holos in Greek means total, whole. Based on this word the term Holism was coined, giving name to a movement that emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century, and is nowadays spread throughout the social, biological and exact sciences. According to the evolutionist Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950) it is “a process of conceiving synthesis”; the whole created through this process is “dynamic, evolutionary and conceiving”. The holistic tendency of the universe manifest itself in stages, from the material reality to the “ideal wholes”, “absolute values” or “holistic ideas”.

 

Drops on a spider web, Serra da Bocaina (Thomas Ufer)

 

Frequently the term “holism” is associated to exoteric and alternative tendencies, it is, however, a serious movement, of academic recognition and important value to the vanguard of scientific and cultural evolution. The top enterprises are already assimilating its innovations related to chaos theory, systemic theories, among others. The educational institutions are also reforming their courses to incorporate these concepts.

In current sciences, Holism, according to which the whole is more than the sum of its parts, is becoming an important stream, opposing to the Atomism (where the whole can be understood by splinting and analyzing each of the separate parts). Holism is strongly connected to systemic sciences and, through this stream, previously totally separated disciplines are merging, due to the recognition of the interdependences and connections, expressed in movements and theories like Deep Ecology and Quantum Mechanics. These theories have strong defenders like the physician Fritjof Capra and the philosopher Ervin Laszlo, among many others.

The key issue is the conscience that we are all part of a greater whole, which cannot be understood merely through the knowledge of all of its parts. This generates a connection and concern of every individual with the next, with society and the environment.