holism

[ hoh-liz-uhm ]

noun

1. Philosophy. the theory that whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence other than as the mere sum of their parts. Compare organicism ( def 1 ).
2. Also Medicine/Medical. care of the entire patient in all aspects of well-being, including physical, psychological, and social.
3. Psychology. any psychological system postulating that the human mind must be studied as a unit rather than as a sum of its individual parts.
4. Anthropology. an emphasis on the dynamic interrelatedness of mind, body, the individual, society, and the physical environment as key to understanding cultural phenomena:

   In anthropology, holism seeks to understand humans as both biological and cultural beings, as living in both the past and the present.

holism

/ ˈhəʊlɪzəm /

noun

1. any doctrine that a system may have properties over and above those of its parts and their organization
2. the treatment of any subject as a whole integrated system, esp, in medicine, the consideration of the complete person, physically and psychologically, in the treatment of a disease See also alternative medicine
3. philosophy one of a number of methodological theses holding that the significance of the parts can only be understood in terms of their contribution to the significance of the whole and that the latter must therefore be epistemologically prior Compare reductionism atomism

Other Words From

• ho·list noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of holism¹

hol- + -ism; term introduced by J.C. Smuts in Holism and Evolution (1926)

Word History and Origins

Origin of holism¹

C20: from holo- + -ism

Example Sentences

No care of scientific holism — and certainly no empathy.

From Salon

The first is the complementarity between analysis and synthesis; or, in popular jargon, “reductionism” and “holism.”

From Scientific American

It merely rehearses more than 60 years of unanswered criticisms, intractable shortcomings and repeated failures that have largely derived from what cognitive scientist Zenon Pylyshyn in 1987 called “problems of holism in reasoning”.

From Nature

The intensity of this year’s Presidential campaign has made the allure of holism particularly potent.

From The New Yorker

He and his contemporaries — Plato and Aristotle — develop the concept of holism: the mind and body are one, and medicine should treat both.

From Nature