Wholeness
The terms wholeness and wholeness are the abstracts of the adjective whole , which can be proven in the German language before the 8th century AD. Whole means whole, unharmed and complete. Wholeness is understood as the totality of all parts or the unity of that which is given in experience. In the physical as well as in the moral sense, it means integrity, proper determination and perfection.
The whole and the parts
Wholeness is the unity applied to diversity , and the parts are the diversity itself, which is totalized by the unity. Unity in this sense is either co-presence (neighborhood, closeness, interaction, functional context) or homologous unity (equality, similarity). Unity can also be recognized in a temporal development as a continuity in the different: In the metamorphosis the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. The wholeness is a unity in becoming. In this sense, Heraklit's panta rhei ( Greek πάντα ῥεῖ , “everything flows”) can be understood as an indication of unity in constant change. With the whole, something new arises through the integration of the parts on a higher level. The whole is not just composed of its parts. Only parts of it are distinguished in each of which the whole is and works. Only the structural connection of the components creates the structure of the whole. Plato therefore declared in his dialogue with Theaetetus : “The chariot is not its hundred parts.” He distinguished between the whole (holon) and the whole (pan) . In his work Timaeus he proposed to understand the world as a whole ( holon ). For Plato, the whole is a unity made up of all parts, to which the parts refer:
“But every whole is necessarily a one consisting of many, and the parts can only be parts of such a one, for every part is not necessarily a part of an ununited plurality, but of such a whole. […] The part is not of many or all of them , but of a certain unified entity ( lit. ἰδέας, dt. Idea ) or a certain one, which we call a whole, as soon as all those parts are completely unified unites in itself. "
Aristotle taught that the whole is more than the sum of the parts (so-called oversummativity ). According to him, the whole (holon) is a determination of the unity (hen) . The term holism describes a holistic teaching that goes back to Jan Christiaan Smuts and his book Holism and Evolution , published in 1926 . This teaching overlaps with older considerations on wholeness.
The whole as a system
The whole as something structured and joined is called a system . The Greek term σύστημα (systema) means the structure, the assembled and the connected. The focus is on the holistic connection of the parts. These are often mutually in a ratio of the interaction . If there is an exchange of energy or matter with the outside world, there is an open system, otherwise one speaks of a closed system. But even open systems must still be able to be clearly delimited from the environment, and the mutual dependence of the parts requires a minimum of continuity and structural order in order to be able to speak of a whole.
Systems can be in equilibrium or in imbalance. In open systems, the equilibrium situation can also be established by a so-called flow equilibrium . There is a constant exchange with the environment, and despite small fluctuations, a stable, on average unchangeable state is maintained. Systems can be static or dynamic .
Dynamic systems are sometimes also capable of self-organization if they are supplied with energy from the environment. The interaction of the parts leads in an irreversible process to new, more complex and at the same time stable structures. These are called dissipative if their stability is based on the conversion of another form of energy into heat.
The scientific investigation and description of systems is carried out through systems theory . A sub-area of this is cybernetics , which is dedicated to the control and information processing of the feedback technical, socio-technical and work systems . The synergetic researches the particularly complex systems with the ability to self-organize.
The quality of the whole
Konrad Lorenz illustrated the perception of the wholeness of a thing preferably as gestalt vision or gestalt perception . He wanted to express the inclusive perception of non-obvious - associatively connected - elements or properties of the object, which nevertheless contribute to its essence, meaning and effect. The overall figure that appears “behind the figure” is the “actual” figure, always to be seen, actually effective in the environment and to be treated, which contains all effects.
“The gestalt perception makes it possible to directly grasp a legality prevailing in complex natural occurrences, i. H. to be separated from the background of the accidental, meaningless information that is transmitted to us by our sensory organs and lower levels of perception at the same time. "
Gestalt quality is the over- summative character of the whole. A shape exists when its peculiarity is retained, especially when changes affecting all parts of a whole, if the structure of the whole (proportions and positional relationships between the parts) is retained. Such a change can be, for example, in the exchange of material or in the transfer to other areas of the senses or being. This structure-preserving change is called transposition.
Wholeness also forms a central category of so-called Gestalt psychology , a branch of the humanities-oriented perceptual psychology. The neurologist and psychiatrist Kurt Goldstein was the first to formulate a theory of the wholeness of the organism, based on the Gestalt theory . He thus became a pioneer of Gestalt therapy .
The organism as a whole
A biological organism is a largely independent material whole that follows biological, chemical and physical laws and also represents a form of life . Metabolism is an essential characteristic of the biological organism . Organisms are examples of wholes whose organs or limbs as parts of these wholes are in material, existential and functional dependencies. In addition, an organism is understood to mean any dynamically ordered wholeness; the term is also applied to peoples, cultures and ways of life, for example. In the Aristotelian tradition, the relationship of society to its members is understood as that of a whole to its parts, which in the exaggeration of the whole as a totality has led to the totalitarian state .
Critical classification of the holistic teachings
In her study, Anne Harrington comes to the conclusion that the concept of wholeness stood in the area of tension between science and rescue mythology from the very beginning, and that after the First World War an “infection of German holistic teaching with racial ideas and its partial absorption into politics and mythology of National Socialism ”took place. But it also makes it clear that the history of holistic thinking consists of many stories, and positions were also possible that saw themselves on a democratic basis and that were in criticism of National Socialism, such as B. with Kurt Goldstein and Max Wertheimer .
Wholeness in Literature
Goethe's Faust conjures wholeness in the first part of the tragedy :
“How everything is woven into a whole,
one in the other works and lives!
How the heavenly
forces rise and fall and the golden buckets reach!
Penetrate
from heaven through the earth with blessing-scented wings, sound harmoniously through
all of the universe!
What a spectacle! But alas! a spectacle only!
Where do I catch you, infinite nature?
You breasts where? You springs of all life,
to which heaven and earth hang,
towards which the withered breast presses -
you swell, you press, and do I languish so in vain? "
literature
- Hermann Haken , Maria Haken-Krell: Development of biological information and order. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-534-02533-4 .
- Anne Harrington : The Search for Wholeness. The history of biological-psychological holistic teaching. From the German Empire to the New Age movement. rororo, Reinbek 2002, ISBN 3-499-55577-8 .
- Konrad Lorenz : The perception of shape as a source of scientific knowledge. In: Journal for Experimental and Applied Psychology. 6, pp. 118-165.
- W. Metzger: Wholeness-Gestalt-Structure. In: Wilhelm Arnold, Hans Jürgen Eysenck and Richard Meili (eds.): Lexicon of Psychology. Col. 662-669. Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1997
- Ilya Prigogine : From being to becoming. Piper, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-492-02488-2 .
- Gustavo Bueno Martinez : whole / part. In: Hans J. Sandkühler et al. (Ed.): European encyclopedia on philosophy and sciences. Meiner-Verlag, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-7873-0983-7 .
- Angelica Nuzzo: whole / part. In: Hans Jörg Sandkühler (Ed.): Encyclopedia Philosophy. Volume 1. Meiner, Hamburg 1999, Col. 410-414, ISBN 3-7873-1452-0 .
- Georgi Schischkoff: Wholeness. In: Philosophical Dictionary. Kröner, Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-01321-5 . P. 211.
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich Kluge: Etymological dictionary of the German language. de Gruyter, Berlin 1999, p. 298.
- ↑ Angelica Nuzzo: Whole / Part. In: Hans Jörg Sandkühler (Ed.): Encyclopedia Philosophy. Volume 1. Meiner, Hamburg 1999, column 410.
- ↑ Compare Gustavo Bueno Martinez: Whole / Part. In: Hans-Jörg Sandkühler (Ed.): European encyclopedia on philosophy and sciences. Volume 2, Hamburg 1990, p. 221.
- ↑ Georgi Schischkoff: Wholeness. In: Philosophical Dictionary. Stuttgart 1982, p. 211.
- ^ Plato: Theaetetus. 207a.
- ^ Plato: Parmenides. 157c-e, based on the translation by Franz Susemihl.
- ^ Georgi Schischkoff: Philosophical Dictionary. Stuttgart 1982, p. 211.
- ↑ See Hermann Haken, Maria Haken-Krell: Origin of biological information and order. Darmstadt 1989, p. 11. This should correspond to the prevailing opinion. Ilya Prigogine, on the other hand, limits the term closed system to the fact that there is no exchange of material, an exchange of energy is also possible with a closed system. See Ilya Prigogine: From being to becoming. Munich 1979, p. 92.
- ↑ Werner Ebeling: Chaos, order and information. Urania, Freiburg im Breisgau 1989, p. 23.
- ^ Konrad Lorenz: The gestalt perception as a source of scientific knowledge. In: Journal for Experimental and Applied Psychology. 6, p. 162.
- ^ Wilhelm Arnold, Hans Jürgen Eysenck and Richard Meili (eds.): Wholeness-Gestalt-Structure. In: Lexicon of Psychology. Volume 1, p. 666.
- ^ Georgi Schischkoff: Organism. In: Philosophical Dictionary. Stuttgart 1982, p. 506.
- ^ J. Rehs, M. Wagner: The law of wholeness. In: The Thuringian educator. Issue 13/14, 1935, pp. 422-426.
- ^ Georgi Schischkoff: Organism. In: Philosophical Dictionary. Stuttgart 1982, p. 506.
- ^ Anne Harrington: The Search for Wholeness. The history of biological-psychological holistic teaching. From the German Empire to the New Age movement. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg, 2002.
- ^ Anne Harrington: The Search for Wholeness. The history of biological-psychological holistic teaching. From the German Empire to the New Age movement. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg, 2002. p. 19
- ^ Anne Harrington: The Search for Wholeness. The history of biological-psychological holistic teaching. From the German Empire to the New Age movement. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg, 2002. p. 22
- ^ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Complete works in 18 volumes. Volume 5: The fist seals. Artemis, Zurich 1950, p. 157 f.