Page 14 - NAMAH-Jul-2017

Namah Vol. 25, Issue 2, 15th July 2017

1. Fundamentals of traditional sciences parts in detail. You cannot know the whole
by studying all the parts in detail — for the
a. The difference in working with wholes and spirit, among several other factors, would be
working with parts the factor that is always missing. And without
The traditional sciences looked upon the the spirit the whole does not function as a
cosmos and human beings as living systems. whole. It simply breaks down into a heap
Here the whole is always regarded as being — like a stack of things.
greater than the sum of its parts.The parts are
there, but they are ‘interconnected’,arranged The method of analytical science is to
in a ‘certain order’, and there is an ‘overall separate the parts from the whole; to then
principle’ that functions through all of analyse each part in great detail; and then
them. This overall principle ‘animates’ the put this knowledge together to develop
whole and guides the parts, which makes an understanding of the whole. While this
the individual parts function in the whole. method is useful for studying mechanical
However, if you ignore this overall principle systems it is useless for studying living
and consider the whole as merely the sum of systems — since the interaction of the parts
its parts, you miss the connections and the and the overall intelligence will always be
overall intelligence. missing.

The whole = ∑ parts + connections + something When something works as a whole, something
overall. new emerges in it. We can call them ‘emergent
properties’ since they are properties of
Sri Aurobindo (in an answer dated 29th the whole and none of the parts has these
January, 1937 to a question by Kishor Gandhi, properties. However, these properties arise
the author of Social Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo) only when the system is working as a whole.
said, “A cell in the body if conscious might also Thus, the ‘whole system properties’ cannot
think that the human being and its action are be known by dividing the system into
only the resultant of the relation and action of a pieces and then analysing the pieces. To
number of cells like itself — not the action of a have an idea of the emergent properties,
unified self (1).” When we think down-up, we consider the following examples: With two
miss the overall or unifying principle like the eyes we do not merely see more, but we
soul or the spirit. Now we attempt to show see a third dimension. When we combine
the dimension that is lost when you try to oxygen and hydrogen into a molecule of
understand the functioning of the whole by H2O, we don’t get another gas, but we get
reducing it to parts. water, a substance with wetting qualities. A
picture appears on the TV when it is tuned
What happens when you cut a living person in into a relay station. It is transmitted from
two parts? You don’t get two persons, but only the relay station, but appears on the TV
two parts of a dead person. This is precisely when they are working as a whole. The
what happens when you try to understand same is true of music, culture, health, etc.
a living whole (or non-mechanical systems) These are properties of the whole that arise
by dividing it into parts and then study the in the parts.

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