Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1
. Holarchies and the order of nature: hierarchical structures/units of life leading to complexification
in organizational order. The notion of entities that are "independent wholes" and "dependent" parts seen as
an overarching assimilation of lower order "parts" into the adjoining level of "wholes." The part-whole
Holon dualism allows for concurrent upward-downward causality (arrows) to coexist (4). The overarching
levels of interconnected and interdependent continuum suggest an integrated worldview perspective and
thinking. The basic causal tension between parts (i.e., mechanistic, reductionist, atomistic) and whole (i.e.,
organistic, systemic, ecological) is depicted by arrows. (Artwork by M. Clemens.)
