SMUTS'S HOLISM AND EVOLUTION SIXTY YEARS ON

SUMMARY

The widely-used term ‘holism’ appeared in the literature sixty years ago with the publication of Jan Smuts's Holism and evolution. The somewhat indefinite meaning that Smuts attached to the term has become largely displaced by an idea that was already current with Gestalt theorists when Smuts wrote Holism and evolution: the idea that a whole is more than (or different from) the sum of its parts. This idea does not appear to be central either to original Gestalt theory or to Smuts's holistic theory. The term ‘wholism’ may be applied to this idea, to distinguish it from Smuts's central idea of holism. Holistic thinking (in a broad sense) is currently aligned with systems theory in opposition to reductionist approaches, which is broadly consistent with Smuts's own standpoint. Smuts's process-orientated, hierarchical view of nature, and his non-preformationist, unified interpretation of inorganic and organic evolution, has provided (despite some confused assessments) a rallying point for revolts against reductionism.