Organicism

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}

{{Platonism}}

{{Platonism}}

'''Organicism''' is the [[Philosophy|philosophical]] position that states that the [[universe]] and its various parts (including [[human societies]]) ought to be considered alive and naturally ordered, much like a [[living organism]].<ref name="iep.utm.edu">{{Cite web|title=Plato: Organicism {{!}} Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/platoorg/|access-date=11 June 2020|website=www.iep.utm.edu}}</ref><ref name=":0">Gilbert, S. F., and S. Sarkar. 2000. "Embracing Complexity: Organicism for the 21st Century." ''Develop Dynam'' 219: 1–9.</ref> Vital to the position is the idea that organicistic elements are not dormant "things" ''per se'' but rather dynamic components in a comprehensive system that is, as a whole, everchanging. Organicism is related to but remains distinct from [[holism]] insofar as it prefigures holism; while the latter concept is applied more broadly to universal part-whole interconnections such as in anthropology and sociology, the former is traditionally applied only in philosophy and biology.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropology {{!}} Wiley|url=https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Experiments+in+Holism%3A+Theory+and+Practice+in+Contemporary+Anthropology-p-9781444333237|access-date=11 June 2020|website=Wiley.com|language=en-us}}</ref><ref>Charles Wolfe. HOLISM, ORGANICISM AND THE RISK OF BIOCHAUVINISM. Verifiche. Rivista di scienze umana, 2014</ref> Furthermore, organicism is incongruous with [[reductionism]] because of organicism's consideration of "both bottom-up and top-down causation."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Soto|first1=Ana M.|last2=Sonnenschein|first2=Carlos|date=2018|title=Reductionism, Organicism, and Causality in the Biomedical Sciences: A Critique|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/713157|journal=Perspectives in Biology and Medicine|language=en|volume=61|issue=4|pages=489–502|doi=10.1353/pbm.2018.0059|pmid=30613032|s2cid=58624436|issn=1529-8795|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Regarded as a fundamental tenet in [[natural philosophy]], organicism has remained a vital current in modern thought, alongside both [[reductionism]] and [[mechanism (philosophy)|mechanism]], that has guided scientific inquiry since the early 17th century.<ref>For example, the philosophers of the [[Ionian Enlightenment]] were referred to by later philosophers (such as Aristotle) as ''[[hylozoism|hylozoists]]'' meaning 'those who thought that matter was alive' (see [[Benjamin Farrington|Farrington]] (1941/53)</ref><ref>For a general overview see [[Fritjof Capra|Capra]] (1996)</ref>

'''Organicism''' is the [[Philosophy|philosophical]] position that states that the [[universe]] and its various parts (including [[human societies]]) ought to be considered alive and naturally ordered, much like a [[living organism]].<ref name="iep.utm.edu">{{Cite web|title=Plato: Organicism {{!}} Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy|url=https://www.iep.utm.edu/platoorg/|access-date=11 June 2020|website=www.iep.utm.edu}}</ref><ref name=":0">Gilbert, S. F., and S. Sarkar. 2000. "Embracing Complexity: Organicism for the 21st Century." ''Develop Dynam'' 219: 1–9.</ref> Vital to the position is the idea that organicistic elements are not dormant "things" ''per se'' but rather dynamic components in a comprehensive system that is, as a whole, everchanging. Organicism is related to but remains distinct from [[holism]] insofar as it prefigures holism; while the latter concept is applied more broadly to universal part-whole interconnections such as in anthropology and sociology, the former is traditionally applied only in philosophy and biology.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Contemporary Anthropology {{!}} Wiley|url=https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Experiments+in+Holism%3A+Theory+and+Practice+in+Contemporary+Anthropology-p-9781444333237|access-date=11 June 2020|website=Wiley.com|language=en-us}}</ref><ref>Charles Wolfe. HOLISM, ORGANICISM AND THE RISK OF BIOCHAUVINISM. Verifiche. Rivista di scienze umana, 2014</ref> Furthermore, organicism is incongruous with [[reductionism]] because of organicism's consideration of "both bottom-up and top-down causation".<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Soto|first1=Ana M.|last2=Sonnenschein|first2=Carlos|date=2018|title=Reductionism, Organicism, and Causality in the Biomedical Sciences: A Critique|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/713157|journal=Perspectives in Biology and Medicine|language=en|volume=61|issue=4|pages=489–502|doi=10.1353/pbm.2018.0059|pmid=30613032|s2cid=58624436|issn=1529-8795|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Regarded as a fundamental tenet in [[natural philosophy]], organicism has remained a vital current in modern thought, alongside both [[reductionism]] and [[mechanism (philosophy)|mechanism]], that has guided scientific inquiry since the early 17th century.<ref>For example, the philosophers of the [[Ionian Enlightenment]] were referred to by later philosophers (such as Aristotle) as ''[[hylozoism|hylozoists]]'' meaning 'those who thought that matter was alive' (see [[Benjamin Farrington|Farrington]] (1941/53)</ref><ref>For a general overview see [[Fritjof Capra|Capra]] (1996)</ref>

Though there remains dissent among scientific historians concerning organicism's pregeneration, most scholars agree on [[Ancient Athens]] as its birthplace. Surfacing in Athenian writing in the 4th-century BC, [[Plato]] was among the first philosophers to consider the universe an intelligent living (almost sentient) being, which he posits in his ''[[Philebus]]'' and ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]''.<ref name="iep.utm.edu"/> At the turn of the 18th-century, [[Immanuel Kant]] championed a revival of organicisitic thought by stressing, in his written works, "the inter-relatedness of the organism and its parts[,] and the circular causality" inherent to the inextricable entanglement of the greater whole.<ref name=":0" />

Though there remains dissent among scientific historians concerning organicism's pregeneration, most scholars agree on [[Ancient Athens]] as its birthplace. Surfacing in Athenian writing in the 4th-century BC, [[Plato]] was among the first philosophers to consider the universe an intelligent living (almost sentient) being, which he posits in his ''[[Philebus]]'' and ''[[Timaeus (dialogue)|Timaeus]]''.<ref name="iep.utm.edu"/> At the turn of the 18th-century, [[Immanuel Kant]] championed a revival of organicisitic thought by stressing, in his written works, "the inter-relatedness of the organism and its parts[,] and the circular causality" inherent to the inextricable entanglement of the greater whole.<ref name=":0" />