This is a new release of the original 1926 edition.

In 1926, J. C. Smuts coined the term holism, which he defined as "the tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater than the sum of the parts through creative evolution." This theory made Smuts a preeminent philosopher, and has been applied to ecology, language and mental states. After studying Smuts's "Holism and Evolution", Albert Einstein posited that in the coming millennium, two mental constructs would direct the human mind, his mental construct of relativity, and Smuts's theory of holism. Smuts's book is broken into enlightening chapters. In the first three, he discusses the reformed concepts of time, space and matter. In 4, he delves into cell and holism, a chapter which serves as a precursor to holism in biology. In 5, 6 and 7, he discusses the general concepts, categories and mechanism in holism. In the last 5 chapters, he discusses Darwinism and Holism, the mind as an organ of wholes, personality as a whole (its functions and ideals) and the holistic view of the universe. Smuts's theory of holism affects every facet of our life, and it's a must read for anyone who seeks to comprehend the holistic approach to life and its place in the universe.

Excerpt from Holism and Evolution It is my belief that Holism and the holistic point of view will prove important in their bearings on some of the main problems of science and philosophy, ethics, art and allied subjects. These bearings are, however, not fully discussed in this work, which is more of the nature of an introduction, and is concerned more with the laying of foundations than with the superstructure. I have no time at present to do more than write an introductory sketch; but I hope in the years to come to find time to follow up the subject and to show how it affects the higher spiritual interests of mankind. The old concepts and formulas are no longer adequate to express our modern outlook. The old bottles will no longer hold the new wine. The spiritual temple of the future, while it will be built largely of the old well-proved materials, will require new and ampler foundations in the light of the immense extension of our intellectual horizons. This little book indicates the lines along which my own mind has trav elled in the search for new and more satisfactory concepts. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

In recent years, evolutionary theorists have come to recognize that the reductionist, individualist, gene-centered approach to evolution cannot sufficiently account for the emergence of complex biological systems over time. Peter A. Corning has been at the forefront of a new generation of complexity theorists who have been working to reshape the foundations of evolutionary theory. Well known for his Synergism Hypothesis—a theory of complexity in evolution that assigns a key causal role to various forms of functional synergy—Corning puts this theory into a much broader framework in Holistic Darwinism, addressing many of the issues and concepts associated with the evolution of complex systems. Corning's paradigm embraces and integrates many related theoretical developments of recent years, from multilevel selection theory to niche construction theory, gene-culture coevolution theory, and theories of self-organization. Offering new approaches to thermodynamics, information theory, and economic analysis, Corning suggests how all of these domains can be brought firmly within what he characterizes as a post–neo-Darwinian evolutionary synthesis.

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