Some Examples of " Holistic " Projects

O ne definition of "holism" is "lhe theory that whole entities, as fundamental components of reality, have an existence olher Ihan Ihe mere sum of their parts" , Ihe term "whole" being defined as referring to "an assemblage of parts associated or viewed as one thing". Environmental activists and many I scientists nowadays stress the need, when studying ecosystems (e.g., coral reefs or estuaries) or resource systems (e.g., fisheries), to have a "holistic" view of things, i.e., to consider all aspects of the system to be studied or managed. Very rarely will one find anyone disagreeing wilh this at the conceptual or theoretical level. However, at the practical level, environmental scientists generally work on specific problems" e.g., on the physiology of one species of an ecosystem, or the changes of one rate (e.g., catch rate) in a resource system. Why so? The answer is: because modem science, including the environmental sciences, is structured since its emergence in the mid-seventeenth century, around holism's very opposite, namely reductionism: "the idea that wholes should be understood by decomposition into basic units" (the phrase is from SJ. Gould1, who, in his writings, sternly disapproves of reductionism). Yet Ihe systems we study are usually too large or too complex to yield their mysteries to those who merely look; you have to poke around, do something, elicit some response (e.g., perform an experiment); or you have to focus on some prominent, clearly visible aspect of the system under study and relate that aspect to the invisible rest of that system ... all of which is reductionism! Thus, the geologist holistically studying a mountain range will have, at some point, to look at a bit of rock and relate its composition to the mountain range (taking one rock sample from a mountain range is not a good sampling design, incidentally!). Similarly, Ihe ecologist attempting a, holistic study of a coral reef must, at