- A theory or belief that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. [from 1926]
- A practice based on such theory or belief.
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Jan Smuts (1926), chapter V, in Holism and Evolution, pages 87–88:
Both matter and and life consist of unit structures whose ordered grouping produces natural wholes which we call bodies or organisms. This character of “wholeness” meets us everywhere and points to something fundamental in the universe. Holism (from ὅλος = whole) is the term here coined for this fundamental operative towards the creation of wholes in the universe.