holism

American  

[hoh-liz-uhm] / ˈhoʊ lɪz əm /

Sometimes wholism

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.

2. Medicine/Medical. Also 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.

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holism British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

• holist noun

Etymology

Origin of holism

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

Example Sentences

No care of scientific holism — and certainly no empathy.

From Salon • Jul. 11, 2023

It’s a tidy little dance of intergovernmental holism.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 15, 2023

And the moral arguments in favor of holism are powerful.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 31, 2016

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 • May 17, 2016

Any notion of inventive holism pretty much died when Microsoft unbundled Kinect from Xbox One.

From Time • Nov. 26, 2014