LOGICAL HOLISM

The Structure and Context of Thinking

Logical holism or structural thinking deals with the spectrum from the most atomic to the most continuous. It recognises that in one context the 'same thing' is many separate atoms or components while in another it is one single whole.

 

Seeing the role of context is the basis of understanding. . A context is like a 'world' characterised by certain kinds of entities, processes, values and relationships. If people are not aware of context as a variable, then they can misunderstand each other and also fail to solve real problems. Contexts are understood by our participation in them. They overlap in varying degrees, such as e.g. the context of commerce and the context of human pleasure or, in a more technical example, the context of production and the context of marketing. Elements of meaning can 'cross over' from one context to another but then transform.

 

Logical holism extends beyond any hierarchical model. There are not simply smaller and larger units, or higher and lower meanings. Context is a 'lateral variable'

In the LVT generic method three types of atom/whole are made explicit. For each of these types there is a corresponding context.

At any stage of thinking the background of thinking contains far more information than the foreground. When the thought is of the parts or atoms, the holistic aspects are forgotten. When it is of the whole, then the atomic aspects are forgotten.

Structural thinking integrates and connects the various domains, levels and kinds of information relevant to a given need or purpose.

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