8/12/2019 Applying Holism in Social Interactions
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Applying Holism in Social Interactions
The idea of holism is very relevant for understanding the
complexity involved in social
interactions. The four basic features of holism, which were
demonstrated by Dr. Gershon in his
lecture, are going to be the elements used to explain how the
complexity of social interactions
can be appreciated and better assimilated.
1. Informism (Informismo) Instead of reducing everything to mere
matter and/or energy, such a
feature has the aim of accepting matter and energy as a form of
information. Thus, information
becomes the way of processing everything we have access, for
connecting different information,
we might come up with a better solution for issues within a
specific social interaction, such as
those in our family context.
2. Adaptation (Adaptacin) While the old paradigm reductionist
asserted prediction, the new
holistic one asseverates adaptation, which means that, when
changes occur in our environment,instead of reacting against them
or ignoring them, we can easily assimilate them into the
context
of social interactions. I believe that adaptation has a strong
efficacy in such a context because it
can help us to better understand and accept the different point
of views that people have.
Therefore, the adaptation feature is essential for making social
interactions not merely tolerated,
but totally acceptable.
3. Contextuality (Contextualidad) A powerful tool for making
social interaction more easy
going is the idea of contextutality. Such a concept implies
that, instead of affirming the
uniqueness of truth, truth is generated by the context in which
it is produced. Consequently, any
truthful statement, for example, is truthful within the context
it was stated. When we have such aconscience, we can better
comprehend why the same person can act differently. For example,
a
person that is usually calm can become anxious when under a
stressful situation. Therefore,
instead of judging or condemning a person, contextuality teaches
us to make a better assessment
of the context in which people might act in their social
interaction; we are not the same all the
time, for context will shape our thoughts, deeds, plans,
etc.
4. Meaning (Significado) Looking for meaning in things is a way
of making life more vibrant.
For long time, nihilism has been the cause of despair in many
people. When a person does not
find meaning for his or her own life, he or she might become
unmotivated to develop any sort of
social interaction with others. Probably many cannot find the
meaning of life. However, finding
meaning in small things can be a great help for finding meaning
in life. In other words, for those
that take life as one thing, they might reduce all to
meaningless, on the other hand, those who can
appreciate small things, such as developing friendship, might
make his or her social interaction
more interesting and uplifting.
