Duration
28 Apr 2025 - 02 May 2025
Holism is a doctrine which claims that "the sum is greater than its parts". A number of major systems, scientific or philosophical, and a number of disciplines, like environmentalism or politics, are commonly described as "holistic". What is meant by the description may vary: sometimes it is taken to mean that a phenomenon must be viewed from different angles. Sometimes it is used casually, as synonymous with an interdisciplinary account. Or else, it means that we cannot understand a collection of phenomena if we disregarded other viewpoints, aspects or explanations. But what kind of methodology is holism exactly? Can it be framed in more precise scientific terms? Or is it a well-meaning signal of our broadmindedness? In short: is it rather an ideology? The goal of the seminar is to come to terms with its different accounts and examples.
* This course is organized as part of the project “Science and Ideology Today. Environmentalism, Primitivism, and Sexuality (ZID)” at the Institute of Philosophy, reviewed by the Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Croatia and financed through the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021–2026 of the European Union – NextGenerationEU.