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Science > Physics |
| User: |
"uri" |
| Date: |
11 Jun 2006 01:08:49 PM |
| Object: |
Holism versus reductionism |
The philosophy of holism was created by Jan Smuts. The holists think
that nature consists of a variety of wholes that can be broken down
into smaller parts.
The holists view the historical process of evolution as an interaction
between and creation of wholes. Though drawing greatly from science,
holism also has an unscientific side as well.
In opposition to holism, reductionism perceives the world by looking at
its smaller parts. Reductionism favors individualism, materialism,
atomization, and a mechanistic outlook, all of which the holists
counter with highly differing views. The holists instead believe in
community, networks, systems, and interdependence.
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Philosophy/holism.html
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| User: "tooly" |
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| Title: Re: Holism versus reductionism |
11 Jun 2006 05:09:53 PM |
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"uri" <danny99@bezeqint.net> wrote in message
news:1150049329.888929.121390@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
The philosophy of holism was created by Jan Smuts. The holists think
that nature consists of a variety of wholes that can be broken down
into smaller parts.
The holists view the historical process of evolution as an interaction
between and creation of wholes. Though drawing greatly from science,
holism also has an unscientific side as well.
In opposition to holism, reductionism perceives the world by looking at
its smaller parts. Reductionism favors individualism, materialism,
atomization, and a mechanistic outlook, all of which the holists
counter with highly differing views. The holists instead believe in
community, networks, systems, and interdependence.
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Philosophy/holism.html
perhaps "experience" is all that seperates the two
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| User: "uri" |
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| Title: Re: Holism versus reductionism |
12 Jun 2006 12:31:02 AM |
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It is incorrect to regard the laws which govern the components of
structures to be more fundamental than the laws which govern the
structures. For example, planetary rotation contains patterns of
behavior which cannot be reduced to the behavior of an individual
planet. The ability to recognize patterns is more important than
reductionist quantization.
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| User: "DjApAnA" |
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| Title: Re: Holism versus reductionism |
11 Jun 2006 02:43:46 PM |
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"uri" <danny99@bezeqint.net> wrote in message
news:1150049329.888929.121390@f6g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
The philosophy of holism was created by Jan Smuts. The holists think
that nature consists of a variety of wholes that can be broken down
into smaller parts.
I prefer to think of it like this: Wholes comprise or are made up by smaller
parts or entities, which are driven by the composite of its smallest parts
to become a part of the larger developing wholes yet to be evolved.
The holists view the historical process of evolution as an interaction
between and creation of wholes.
"Though drawing greatly from science,
holism also has an unscientific side as well."
Purely out of curiosity, please substantiate this statement with some
examples to that effect.
In opposition to holism, reductionism perceives the world by looking at
its smaller parts.
Without reductionism, holism would not seem so structured, although it would
still be inclusive, as well as reactive to all the parts which makes up the
whole...
Reductionism favors individualism, materialism,
atomization, and a mechanistic outlook, all of which the holists
counter with highly differing views. The holists instead believe in
community, networks, systems, and interdependence.
Interdependance to some extent, but moreso interactiveness.
It is after all the individuality and uniqueness of the many that builds
diversity, and to study the attributes of indivudual diversity is a tiresome
procedure, and an ongoing futility, one which can be effortlessly replaced
by holistic insights. As with religions, to remain objective one may not
condemn the possibility that all religions are true. To claim one holds all
the truth of religious, or spiritual matters has never successfully been
promulgated. Yet all the different parts that make up the different bodies
are not always dissimilar in full from similar parts in different bodies. In
the Christian church salvation is achieved by turning to external divinity,
but so too is salvation achieved by the muslim faith, which has different
rules to the same ballgame. It's like snooker and pool. There are still two
sides playing a six hole table, yet the balls are different in each of the
two games, and scoring is differently achieved.
Sometimes its not just about the reaction to the past or the future, but
about the change of the moment, which if not observed, passes unnoticed by
all. Reductionism may well have its benefits, in the larger Holistic shceme
of things... Bigger has always been promoted as being better, and in
Holistic terms this might well be true...
:-)
DjApAnA
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Philosophy/holism.html
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| User: "Immortalist" |
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| Title: Re: Holism versus reductionism |
12 Jun 2006 01:15:59 PM |
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uri wrote:
The philosophy of holism was created by Jan Smuts. The holists think
that nature consists of a variety of wholes that can be broken down
into smaller parts.
The holists view the historical process of evolution as an interaction
between and creation of wholes. Though drawing greatly from science,
holism also has an unscientific side as well.
In opposition to holism, reductionism perceives the world by looking at
its smaller parts. Reductionism favors individualism, materialism,
atomization, and a mechanistic outlook, all of which the holists
counter with highly differing views. The holists instead believe in
community, networks, systems, and interdependence.
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Philosophy/holism.html
On the other hand, holism and reductionism can also be regarded as
complementary viewpoints, in which case they both would be needed to
get a proper account of a given system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holism
Polarization is the process by which the public opinion divides and
goes to the extremes. It can also refer to when the extreme factions of
a political party gain dominance in a party. In either case moderate
voices often find that they have lost power.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_%28politics%29
Misleading Vividness is a fallacy in which a very small number of
particularly dramatic events are taken to outweigh a significant amount
of statistical evidence. This sort of "reasoning" has the following
form:
Dramatic or vivid event X occurs (and is not in accord with the
majority of the statistical evidence) .
Therefore events of type X are likely to occur.
This sort of "reasoning" is fallacious because the mere fact that an
event is particularly vivid or dramatic does not make the event more
likely to occur, especially in the face of significant statistical
evidence.
People often accept this sort of "reasoning" because particularly vivid
or dramatic cases tend to make a very strong impression on the human
mind. For example, if a person survives a particularly awful plane
crash, he might be inclined to believe that air travel is more
dangerous than other forms of travel. After all, explosions and people
dying around him will have a more significant impact on his mind than
will the rather dull statistics that a person is more likely to be
struck by lightning than killed in a plane crash.
It should be kept in mind that taking into account the possibility of
something dramatic or vivid occuring is not always fallacious. For
example, a person might decide to never go sky diving because the
effects of an accident can be very, very dramatic. If he knows that,
statistically, the chances of the accident are happening are very low
but he considers even a small risk to be unnaceptable, then he would
not be making an error in reasoning.
http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/misleading-vividness.html
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Holism versus reductionism |
11 Jun 2006 01:28:56 PM |
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uri wrote:
The philosophy of holism was created by Jan Smuts. The holists think
that nature consists of a variety of wholes that can be broken down
into smaller parts.
The holists view the historical process of evolution as an interaction
between and creation of wholes. Though drawing greatly from science,
holism also has an unscientific side as well.
In opposition to holism, reductionism perceives the world by looking at
its smaller parts. Reductionism favors individualism, materialism,
atomization, and a mechanistic outlook, all of which the holists
counter with highly differing views. The holists instead believe in
community, networks, systems, and interdependence.
http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Philosophy/holism.html
So we go with the inclusive OR and use both holism and reductionism to
produce a holistic solution.
Holism produces huge leaps in humanity's advancement. Reductionism is
better for fixing a car.
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