INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF HOLISM

“The whole is more than the sum of its parts.” — Aristotle

What is Holism?

The concept of “whole as greater than the sum of its parts” has ancient roots. But the term “holism” (more reasonably but less often spelled ‘wholism’) as fully developed rarely appears in anyone’s conversation except somewhat narrowly in that of the philosophers or sociologists. It is a scholarly word that originated from the Greek ‘holos’, meaning ‘whole’. In its present context, as defined by General Jan Christian Smuts (1870-1950), 4th Prime Minister of South Africa and a British Commonwealth military leader, statesman and philosopher conceived “holism” as “The tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater than the sum of the parts through creative evolution.” Smuts, arguing in the Holism and Evolution (1926) says: “This factor, called Holism in the sequel, underlies the synthetic tendency in the universe, and is the principle which makes for the origin and progress of ‘wholes’ in the universe. . . this whole-making or holistic tendency is fundamental in nature, that it has a well-marked ascertainable character, and that Evolution is nothing but the gradual development of progressive series of wholes, stretching from inorganic beginnings to the highest levels of spiritual creation.” ^{(Smuts, page-V)}

The holistic concept in ancient theological belief, per Heraclitus (c.535-475 BCE), was strongly reflected in the concept of Logos and Pantheism. The Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi (c. 369-286 BCE) was an exponent of the holistic philosophy of life, projecting a way of understanding that is uncommitted to a fixed system, a way that is fluid and flexible, and that maintains a pragmatic attitude towards the applicability of the “multiplicity of diverse modes” of realization among different creatures, cultures and philosophical outlooks. Philosophers and thinkers even before Socrates (c.469-399 BCE) have rationally as well as theologically speculated that wholes, both animate and inanimate, are real, while parts are abstract analytical distinctions, and that wholes are flexible patterns, not simply mechanical assemblages of self-sufficient elements. Implicit in this view is that, when individual components of a system are put together to produce a large functional unit, a holistic quality develops which is not predictable from the behavior of the components in their individual capacity.

Along genuine holistic paths, whether theistic or non-theistic and whatever they are called, there is a potential evolutionary movement in the consciousness of the human being. It is a movement from the ordinary level of being, doing, and having that most of us know in our daily lives to something more fulfilling. The ordinary level is one where exist many misunderstandings, frequent periods of frustration and stress, remittent moments of happiness and pleasure, a somewhat scattered attention, and for some an underlying sense that we are not living as fully as we might until it is too late. The holistic path—which is mystical path for a theistic and an evolutionary for a non-theistic—is intended to help us experience another level where life reveals a much deeper inner meaning, where our thoughts, feelings and actions are integrated by a clear intelligence and knowledge, and a feeling of intimacy and participation with something greater than our normal selves occurs. A theistic describes it as a level where a profound spiritual dimension appears. But Plato called it higher knowledge. Many great artists tell of mysterious creative moments. Speaking holistically, we might say that the ordinary daily level that most of us know is fragmented and partial, one where experiences are driven by one part or another, such as a strong desire, a thought, or a physical urge. The higher level is experienced as more whole, more free, where fragments of formerly disparate and conflicting physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual energies are unified by a love-wisdom of the heart and a new sense of inner unity and oneness arises. The spirit is now filled with love and emerges as an active, creative, participating force in life. One must learn to distinguish the permanent transformation to the higher level from a temporary or gradual changing.

Holism Today

            The modern proposition of holism stems from an old idea that existed spontaneously in the ancient cultures of the Chinese, Babylonians, Egyptians, Indians, and Homeric Greeks. It viewed the human being as a compound of body and soul. With physical death, the soul was considered no longer an alert consciously living entity. In some cultures it would become a pathetic shade or ghost doomed to reside in a gloomy underworld. In other cultures it would reincarnate in another body, and for still others, on account of being no longer whole without a body, the soul would dissolve into nothingness. This theme of soul unable to function without physical body, still holding ground in the modern age, impregnated itself especially into most of the monotheistic faiths within the concept of an eschatological (religious belief of judgment and destiny) resurrection as a basic theological concern with death, destiny and day of judgment. Historically, these theological considerations, originating from Zoroastrianism, entered first into Judaism when the Jews, during their Babylonian exile, came into contact with the Zoroastrian culture. From Judaism this idea passed on to Christianity and Islam where it formed into a belief that a human being is a compound whole of body, mind and soul (or spirit), and that not one of these by itself is fully alive and whole without the other two.

Though the concept of holism was vividly and concisely reflected by Aristotle (384-322 BCE) in his Metaphysics (1045a10) that, “The whole is more than the sum of its parts” but holism in the mystical dimension of western philosophy and sociology emerged strongly when Baruch de Spinoza (1632-1677) developed a holistic philosophy in a way reminiscent of Parmenides (c. 515-450 BCE). Spinoza conceived that all the visible divisions and differences in the world are in fact aspects of an invisible single substance. He speculated that there is only one substance, “God, or Nature”, as nothing finite is self-subsistent. His holistic view proposed a pantheistic religious experience which was already being reflected in the mystical thinking of many religious traditions as “spiritualism.”

After Spinoza, George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1860), based on his holistic philosophy that nature consists of one timeless, rational and spiritual reality and state—reflected a mystical vision of the invisible unity underlying all visible objects. Hegel’s underlying invisible, unitive state is a quasi-mystical collectivism of an “invisible and higher reality.” The whole is identified by Hegel as the Absolute in a spiritual sense. All modern exponents of collectivism in the political and social sciences, including even Karl Marx (1818-1883), stress some higher collective reality—a unity, a whole, a group—though nearly always at the cost of minimizing the importance of the role of the part and the individual. Against individualism, they emphasize the social whole or social forces that somehow possess a character and a will which is greater than or over and above the characters and wills of the individual members summed up together. Thus, in the past hundred years, holism has tended to represent a collectivism and to sometimes be perceived as opposed to individualism.

In the second half of the twentieth century, the concept of holism began to inspire a broader thinking that the wholes, whether in biological organism, medicine, science, art, individual behavior, philosophy of language, cultures, etc., are much more than the sum of their parts. In the philosophy of history and social science, holism asserts that the objects of social inquiry are collectives rather than individual actions. In Gestalt psychology, it sets the focus on “Gestalt”—an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts—not on isolated or separate elements. In philosophy of biology, holism opposes mechanism and vitalism, maintaining that life consists in the dynamic system of the organism. In the realm of physics, the holistic concept is reflected in the modern quantum field theory that describes all existence as an exhortation of the underlying quantum vacuum, as though all existing entities are like ripples on a universal pond—a very modern theory yet remarkably similar to a very ancient Indian theory that likens all entities to waves forming and un-forming on the surface of a vast and deep ocean.

Holism and Islam

            Hundreds of years before, Spinoza (1632-1677) developed a holistic philosophy or Hegel (1770-1831) conceived a mystical vision of the unity of all things, or modern thinkers like Karl Marx (1818-1883) could propound a sociopolitical collectivism, a sophisticated and remarkable holistic development had already occurred in the Islamic world of eighth century CE when holism emerged in the mystical branch of Islamic tradition, identifying a mystic of a certain high level of consciousness as a “perfect” Qutb, or a whole human being. It is important to add here that later on the famous philosopher of the eighteenth century, Emmanuel Kant (1724-1804)—though not directly from the mystics of Islam—defined this concept of mystical unity as a “transcendental unity of perception or self-consciousness.” Muslim thinkers believed that it is human spirit or soul whose windows can open to embrace all directions in unlimited dimension and their contents.  Subsequently, more than a few renowned mystics, men and women both, appeared in the culture of Islam believing and preaching pantheism or in the modern sense holism. Pantheism maintains that everything is divine, that God and Nature are identical. The Islamic mystics expressed pantheism within their belief of wahdat al-wujud, “the Unity of Being”, a concept tinged with metaphysics and a philosophical way of putting the same simple idea. The Arabic term describes the doctrine of pantheism the easy way, that all possible views about the Ultimate Reality can be termed as ‘pantheistic’ if they are focused exclusively on the Unity of Ultimate Reality, whatever its nature may be. According to Khalifa Abdul Hakim’s views in The Metaphysics of Rumi, “Even most of the evidently atheistic doctrines can be identified with it, to justify the witty remark of Schopenhauer that ‘Pantheism is the poetry of Atheism.’ Ethical Monism like that of Fichte or Panlogism like that of Hegel, the One Substance doctrine of Spinoza with a number of others in so far as they are monistic are pantheistic.” ^{(Hakim, 2006, p. 148)}

Muslim mystics were both experiencing and unfolding a mysterious and invisible factor (called later “holism”) that is enfolded but “hidden” within the fundamental synthetic tendency of the universe. Long sought by philosophers, mystics, and scientists, this factor brings an evolutionary leap in consciousness—a process with a phenomenal result we are describing as holistically human. Whereas a study of the ordinary outer mind, thought to be conscious, highlights reason and projects the power of a human being as an individual, the study of the inner or unconscious mind reflects the importance of genuine passion and reflects the power of a relationship between human beings, an invisible bond that yearns for and brings contact, connection, harmony, and wholeness. For the mystics, the “unconscious” is innate, emotional, and sensitive, is capable of perceiving and creating brilliantly. It is the unconscious mind that wants to reach out, aspires to love, and to commune with fellow human beings, emphasizing a feature of inner or unconscious mind that the learned are as one soul; in particular, the oneness of all the monotheistic prophets that cannot be broken up into fragments. If one disbelieves in one of the prophets, one’s faith in any other prophet is fractured.

Interpretation and development of a rational, Hellenistic-style philosophy in Islam had reached its highest point in the period between al-Kindi (801-873) and Averroes or Ibn Rushd (1126-1198). Now in the twelfth century and in reaction to Neoplatonism, the renowned Islamic theologians, most prominent amongst them al-Ghazali (1058-1111) interpreted that religion cannot be reconciled with philosophy. Mystic thought and life had also experienced a long and sustained tradition from the first known ascetic in Islam, Abu Hashim (d. 767 CE) of Syria to whom the word Sufi was applied, to Sanai (c.1044-1150) and Farid-ud-din Attar (c.1120-1193) of Persia and to Mohi-ud-Din ibn Arabi (1165-1240) of Arab Spain, a contemporary of Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273). Thus Rumi, appearing at a relative high point in the development and perfection of philosophical thought and religious experience in Islam, was able to inherit an exceptional intellectual and spiritual wealth. He had the theoretical influences of Greek philosophical interpretation, Jewish and Christian religious life, and Islamic jurisprudence on the one hand and the influences of Persian and Indian traditions on the other. Rumi, an orthodox Muslim, was guided and inspired by his mentor Shams-i-Tabriz who said: “The universe exists through the whole, not parts—and the whole universe is within one human being. When he knows himself, he knows all.” ^{(Shams-i-Tabriz, Maqalat)} Thus the concept of holistic humanism evolved to embrace all human beings as one “whole humankind.”

Rumi benefiting from his predecessors and then followed by many Muslim scholars and mystics, viewed the human being as the sum of several different, but interacting, energies within one body, namely, the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual components. These entities or systems of energy mutually interact. The potential exists for both alignment and misalignment, for right or wrong relation among these energies. In ordinary daily activity, these energies are usually pulled in different directions. But, at moments, without notice, they can align—and there is a new level of awareness and consciousness that is substantially greater than the sum of its previously separated or conflicting parts. For as long as it lasts, this wholeness brings a much greater sense of unity and oneness, an awareness of itself with a new integrity, and a new relation to its inner and outer environments. An ordinary person, living with at least some conflicting thoughts, feelings, and impulses etc., inside him or her is unable to imagine how it will be when these are reconciled or resolved, what it will be like when “the conflicting desires and voices” (within) vanish and there is a wholeness—one intention, a unity reflecting as a whole. In many, but not in all cases, when this previously unimaginable wholeness occurs the individual may be aware of a spiritual component or presence and recognize it as such. This paradigm of holism within an individual (who experiences even a flash of holism) is a clue of what may be possible for the larger whole of humankind. The universal “holistic humanism” for the species appears dependent on the same paradigm as a single human being seen as a whole and bearing a common strand of spiritual harmony, unity and love.

Secular Humanism and Holism

Historically, humanism in its philosophical characteristic projected by the human being’s conscious mind or reason, has been associated with two main groups. One is the 15th century “Italian humanists” who were concerned with art and literature; the other is the present-day humanists who have a secular outlook. Neither group, at least until now, has defined humanism within the context of a human being’s inner or unconscious mind which is the source of an invisible bond between the people seeking harmony, connection, and love. Rather, the key attribute of secular humanism is to project the power of an individual human being pursuing worldly status, material gains or social contribution. Though secularism has a role in theist’s realm, it is not typically secularist. His holistic outlook is neither relative nor confined to one period’s art and literature nor to the present time’s secularist view. For him the core of human beings is the mind, soul or spirit that projects empowerment and self-actualization a, that in right relation produce harmony within an individual and within humanity. The ability of the human being to think and feel in all aspects, “material” and “spiritual”—to reason and intuit, to love, hate and fear, to receive and sense through “senses” and to perceive and believe beyond matter and form—is a vital element in the holistic essence of any humanism.

Present day humanists pose serious questions about the validity of religious traditions. Some reject religion outright, arguing that religions are intolerant of each other and thus create, conflict, violence and war. Yet history does not support the thesis that secularists have done less harm or damage to mankind with their conflicts, wars and killings. Religion has often espoused moral behavior by and toward those within the group and have been a source of motivation to individuals to bind together into a society. The theists endorse the faith instinct, believing that it is hardwired into human nature. The prophets and sages who introduced religions are like different windows through which one light enters, but is reflected differently to accommodate a diverse humankind. The consequences depend on the capacity of the receivers, how they accept this light and/or manipulate it.

After the two World Wars of the twentieth century, a new dimension of humanism among philosophers, theologians, and men of sciences began to emerge as “Renaissance of Holistic Humanism.” This view emphasizes that since human beings are holistically body, mind, and spirit, their appreciation must not be based only on matter and form. This form of humanism prioritizes our common human needs and seeks both rational and spiritual ways of solving out problems as physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual beings. Though many atheists and agnostics of the twentieth century humanism give primacy to humans in contrast to an ideology or a religion, they nevertheless do profess faith in the human beings’ capacity to evolve further in the realm of reason and love, and in their ability to grow toward whatever they potentially are. For the religious people, reason and science have their limitations while the human imagination, being naturally a religious imagination, is intrinsically drawn to spiritualism—irrespective of the faith or ideology one follows. For them, the spirit is the real substance and the phenomenal world of intellectual physical properties is a collection of its attributes.

Philosophically, an understanding of Al-Ghazali, Ibn Arabi and Rumi’s works, allows the premise that the holistic human view of these great thinkers may have been the forerunners of modern trends towards spiritual pluralism, voluntarism, and activism. The impact of Muslim philosophers’ translations and commentaries of Greek philosophers and on Latin philosophical thought was such that Western thought between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries is inexplicable without considering the conceptual discourses of Muslim thinkers that there are different routes to the same truth. This served the modern foundation for theoretical openness, political freedom, and religious tolerance in Western thought. Muslim thinkers’ thought helped shape philosophy in the post-Kantian period of Goethe and Spinoza, and is related with the cognitions of Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Bergson, Iqbal and many other thinkers of east and west. One salient aspect in especially Rumi’s work is his personal experiences in unraveling the religious problems that surround questions of free will, ego, and resurrection. His theory of emergent evolution and creative development and his emphasis on “intuition” and “love” (as opposed to barren intellectualism) converge into a supreme philosophy that an individual’s “self” is isolated, indeterminate, indistinct and featureless unless and until he can incorporate himself in the natural and social holism of humanity.

Mirza Iqbal Ashraf

February 17, 2012