"Holism sees nothing but the whole. Reductionism sees nothing but parts. The hologrammatic principle sees the parts in the whole and the whole in the parts" (Edgar Morin).
"Nothing exists without unity, nothing can be conceived or produced in isolation" (Schelling).
"To find the one is to possess the All" (Swami Prajnanpad).
Reductionism and Holism
Reductionism and holism are two paradigms, two distinct and (in principle) opposite ways of approaching reality, and have been widely debated in science.
Reductionism is a philosophy that attempts to reduce a phenomenon or system into its simplest components.
It uses an analytical type process, in search of the particular and the detail.
The whole is nothing more than the sum of its components.
The components are independent of each other.
No consideration is given to how such components are structured or related to form a whole.
Holism, on the other hand, believes that this approach is too simplistic, that things must be viewed holistically.
The approach he uses is synthetic, in search of the general and global.
The whole is something more than the sum of its parts, for something else is added that cannot be predicted from the mere sum of its components. In biology that which is added is called an "emergent property", as opposed to the particular properties of its components.
The components are not isolated. They are interdependent. The relationships between components are structured to form a whole.
Apparently, reductionism and holism are opposing principles (holism sees nothing but the whole, reductionism sees nothing but the parts), but both paradigms, contemplated from a broader perspective, are two complementary (and not antagonistic) ways of conceiving reality. They are two forms of consciousness that have their correspondence with the cerebral hemispheres (left: reductionism, right: holism).
According to Edgar Morin, holism is also a type of reductionism. According to this author, it is necessary to transcend and overcome these two opposing principles in a principle he calls "hologrammatic", in which a continuous dynamic is established between the whole and its parts: the whole is in the part and the part is in the whole. This concept transcends reductionism (which only sees the parts) and holism (which only sees the whole). This conceptual framework recognizes the complexity of reality, which always presents its components interconnected, never isolated.
Logos vs. Holos
The reductionist principle is identified with Logos, the analytical, rational and superficial. The opposite or complementary principle is Holos, the synthetic, intuitive and profound.
According to Ervin Laszlo [2009], the new scientific paradigm is Holos, a new integrative, synthetic, intuitive, profound and harmonious consciousness. This author says: "The reign of Logos has come to an end". "The time has come for one more change: to move from a civilization of Logos to one of Holos." "Moving toward a Holos civilization is not just an option, it is a survival imperative."
But Laszlo is not right. The new scientific paradigm is the union of Logos and Holos, to achieve a balance and harmony between the two modes of consciousness represented by these two terms. Holos, yes, is the key, the most important, the profound aspect. But we cannot live without Logos, without the superficial, the tangible. The union between these concepts translates into the harmonization of aspects such as: independence and interrelation, mechanicism and vitalism, complexity and simplicity, chaos and order, competition and cooperation, etc. In short, the union of all the aspects of consciousness that we have seen in the section "Foundation".
We can also consider that the Logos is nothing more than Holos projected or manifested at a superficial level. In short, that everything is Holos. In this sense, Laszlo would be right.
The semantic holism
In philosophy of language, semantic holism holds that each part of language, be it a term, word, or sentence, can only be understood in terms of its relations to the whole language. That is, each part of language must be observed as a whole and not separately. Only a complete language has full meaning.
In semantic holism the principles of:
Contextuality.
Each part of speech has meaning only within its context. According to this principle, upheld by structuralist philosophy, a symbol has no meaning unless it is part of a context or a whole.
Compositionality.
The meaning of a part of speech is a function of the meaning of its components.
Semantic holism is the opposite of semantic atomism, which asserts that individual symbols can have meaning in isolation.
Semantic holism is closely related to epistemic holism, which asserts that the truth of an isolated statement has no meaning. A context, more or less broad, is needed for it to have meaning.
Quine (Chomsky's teacher) is an advocate of semantic holism. He denies the absolute analytic-synthetic distinction. For Quine, any part of language, be it a term or a complete sentence can only be understood through relations to a larger segment of language or the whole language.
MENTAL and the Modes of Consciousness
MENTAL is both a reductionist and holistic language.
It is reductionist, because it is based on a simple and reduced set of semantic primitives.
It is holistic because these primitives are universal and archetypal in nature, in the sense that they always apply at all levels, combining them to create higher-order expressions.
This holistic characteristic of language manifests itself in the aspects of:
Globality. It is necessary to contemplate language at a global level, as a whole.
Interrelation. The universal semantic primitives are interconnected, interrelated. Each primitive depends on the others.
Freedom. The language allows combining primitives and relating expressions, without restrictions.
Creativity. The language is creative, because of the combinatorial freedom and because it is based on primitive archetypes, which are simple but profound concepts.
This union of reductionism and holism is what, at the physical level, Steven Weinberg calls "grand reductionism": the idea that the most fundamental laws of nature contain an explanation of all the characteristics of the higher and outer levels.
The union lexical semantics - structural semantics
The semantics of a language has two main aspects or dimensions:
Lexical semantics. This refers to the meaning of each of the primitives of the language.
Structural semantics. Refers to the meaning of the expressions that can be formed by combination of the primitives.
In the case of MENTAL, the structural semantics is the same as the lexical semantics, i.e., the combinatorial patterns of the primitives are the same primitives. Lexical semantics and structural semantics are the same thing. This is a very important and essential aspect of MENTAL.
Semantic holism
MENTAL, as a language, has meaning when all its components, i.e., semantic primitives, are contemplated or considered. In each expression is potentially all the potential of language, and in each primitive are all the primitives.
Conclusion
MENTAL can be considered a holographic language because conceptual relationships exist between all components and at all levels through universal semantic primitives. MENTAL is also a fractal language [see Properties - MENTAL, a Fractal Language].
MENTAL hopes to be a contribution to this new harmonizing consciousness of Logos and Holos, since it integrates in a single language both modes of consciousness, the holistic, theoretical and idealistic with the reductionist, practical and material, that is, it unifies the two visions of reality symbolized by Don Quixote and Sancho. These two characters symbolize two opposing conceptions of the world. Don Quixote is imaginative, creative, visionary, adventurous, idealistic, restless, intuitive, a fighter for justice, order, power and wisdom, he sees the profound and transcendent in the everyday. Sancho, on the contrary, is practical, rationalist, materialistic, comfortable, realistic, conformist, calm, he only sees the superficial, the external.
Addenda
The origin of holism
The concept of "holism" was put forward and defined in 1926 by the South African politician, military man, naturalist and philosopher Jan Christiaan Smuts (1870-1950) in his book "Holism and Evolution" as "the tendency in nature to form totalities that are greater than the sum of the parts by creative evolution."
According to Smuts. progress is made by bottom-up groupings. Small units must necessarily be grouped into larger structures, and these in turn must be grouped into still larger structures, and so on. An application of this principle to society was his idea of the South African Union, the idea of the Commonwealth of Nations, and, finally, the great whole resulting from the union of all the peoples of the earth in a great League of Nations.
After Einstein read "Holism and Evolution," shortly after its publication, he stated that two mental constructs will drive human thought in the next millennium: his own theory of relativity and Smuts' holism. Einstein also told Smuts that he was "one of eleven men" in the world who understood his theory of relativity.
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