holism.

An approach emphasizing a whole and its relations rather than treating parts alone as sufficient.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• methodological holism
• explanatory holism

On the page

Methodological holism directed attention to relations among the components.

Explanatory holism did not prohibit every analysis of separate parts.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: institutional and conceptual change, philosophical orientation, qualification of recurrence and degree. Disciplines: academic writing, philosophy, cross-disciplinary analysis. Commonness: moderately common.