The history of reductionism versus holistic approaches to scientific research

For centuries, reductionism has been the subject of much discussion among scientists and philosophers, and has come to be an integral part of modern science. In its strongest form the world may be seen as a series of reductive levels: social groups, multicellular living things, cells, molecules, atoms, and finally as the smallest parts the elementary particles. In contrast, holism, in the form of systems theories, builds on the idea that systemic relations arising at complicated stages of integration may produce new and unpredictable characteristics of the system. This paper presents a brief historical overview, and explains some of the basic distinctions which are necessary in analyzing what reductionism is all about.