91 WCD as a (W(H)olistic Response 2 all criticised Western education for being too reductionistic and, therefore, lacking an eye for the whole and the more organic approach that this whole requires. Reductionism may present itself in different ways, stated Wrigley (2019), but ‘generally signifies a loss of complexity which hinders an adequate understanding of reality’ (p. 146). He argued for ‘the need to attend to openness, stratification end emergence’, which for formal education means not just focusing on scores but also reckoning with: multiple nested and interlocking systems (the individual learner, groups, classrooms, the accountability machine) and various forms of interaction and interface (teacher–pupil, teacher–management, school–parents). Learners are pulled between school world and lifeworld—particularly challenging if there is a distance between school and community cultures. Even a solo act of learning involves interaction between subject and object, mediated by various instruments and cultural tools, in a dance involving backwards and forwards motion between abstract concepts and sensory experience. And this is not even to begin considering social, economic and cultural power differences of the politics of the curriculum. (Wrigley, 2019, p. 160) What this quotation clarifies is that the bigger whole of the complex context matters. Reduction may be necessary for a good analysis, but what must not to be overlooked is the subsequent need for synthesis. ‘Western science favours analytical and reductionist methods as opposed to the more intuitive and holistic view often found in traditional knowledge’, summarised Mazzocchi (2006, p. 464). Beech (2022) even denounced Western science for committing ‘epistemicide’, meaning the imposition of a strongly rationalised scientific method over the worldwide scientific debate, declaring other forms of wisdom and reasoning unjustly out of order. The conclusion for this study can be that reductionism may function as a useful instrument in all scientific endeavours, although it always needs proper correction to not lose sight of the bigger wholes of organisms and of subjects in their wider contexts. Good analysis requires good synthesis (2). 2.2 HOLISM AS A BROAD REACTION TO REDUCTIONISM A particular focus on (both natural and social) ecosystems can be found in holism. Holism is a concept introduced in 1926 by South African statesman, military leader and philosopher Jan Christian Smuts (1870–1950), in his work 2 The main part of this section, from the first to the penultimate paragraph, was previously published as part of a peer-reviewed article (van Olst, 2023a).
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