
Ask HN: What Does “Holistic” Mean? - throwasdf
I keep seeing this everywhere, and have for many years. I still have no idea what it means.<p>Google says &quot;characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole&quot;, and I&#x27;m more confused than anything.
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PaulHoule
Frequently it is used in contrast to "reductionism", where something is broken
down into parts.

One "holistic" approach (in my mind) is a broad accounting of stocks and
flows. For instance to evaluate the possibility of building a space sunshade
with a solar sail factory on a carbonaceous chondrite asteroid it would be
reductionistic to design the system and mission in as much detail as possible,
It is another to say that you need to make 10^14 kg of mylar and 10^12 kig of
aluminum and make some broad guesses about stocks and flows from there. That's
more holistic.

I would say use of the holographic principle in quantum gravity is holistic,
adding up thousands of Feynmann diagrams is reductionistic.

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lioeters
I like how you contrasted with an opposite term to clarify the meaning.

Looking up an antonym of _holistic_ , I find:

> _atomistic_ \- Consisting of many separate, often disparate elements

..which evokes _analysis_ , to break down into parts.

In contrast:

> _holistic_ \- Emphasizing the importance of the whole and the
> interdependence of its parts. Concerned with wholes rather than analysis or
> separation into parts.

..which is about _synthesis_ , to bring parts together into a whole.

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smt88
It depends on context

The original meaning was about wholeness: studying or managing something as a
whole.

It has been co-opted by alternative medicine, which is where you'll see the
word most often. There is (and should be) a concept of holistic medicine,
which could mean seeing the body as a whole instead of individual systems.
Real medicine is going in this direction anyway, for example with the growing
understanding of the link between the brain and gut.

For people marketing alternative medicine, it's a buzzword that makes people
think of whole _some_ , and also that the seller is considering things that
science-based medicine is missing.

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giantg2
Basically, it means to think of all parts of a system as a complete system,
not viewing the parts of the system independently.

For example, if you review a car, like in the publication Car and Driver, you
might look at the engine and rate it, but it would be within the context of
that car. You could have a high output engine and weak brakes, which might
make the car less attractive from a holistic view (and maybe dangerous). You
want to see how all the parts of that car 'add up' as a complete system.

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codingdave
That definition from google is not wrong, but they sure did word it in a
difficult way.

It literally means looking at the whole picture -- "whole-istic" would be a
misspelling, but makes the meaning more clear. See all parts of a system as a
pieces of a bigger entity, and recognize that what impacts one part will
impact the whole.

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nosmokewhereiam
All encompassing, multi-source, etc. My take from Oregon, among those at fair.

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amitoz_azad
A whole man is a holy man !

