Gd 0 2 Smuts, Holism and Evolution

© Antony V. Trowbridge [1]

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[ Albert Einstein ]

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SMUTS,‘HOLISM AND EVOLUTION’

INNOVARSI

THE GREAT EVOLUTIONARY DIVIDE GD/3

- between Matter, Life and Mind – with

‘Holism and Evolution’. of Jan Christiaan Smuts

OTHER REFERENCESGD/1 HOLISTIC TRIUNE BRAIN GD/3 BUCKMINSTER FULLER’S AFRICAN LEGACY

GD/1/2

HOLISM IN EVOLUTION

This term ‘Holism’ has been widely and indiscriminately used by countless institutions of government, business and learning without acknowledgement of its origin or an understanding of its meaning or purpose in the world. Coined by Jan Christiaan Smuts from the Greek word ‘holos’ it was the result of his lifelong concern over the human condition as exemplified in the opening paragraph in his seminal book ‘Holism and Evolution’ [1926]

"In spite of the great advances which have been made in knowledge, some fundamental gaps still remain. Matter, Life and Mind still remain disparate phenomena, yet all three arise in experience, and in the human all three meet and apparently intermingle, so that the last word on them has not been said."

Smuts, the lawyer, academic, natural scientist, military strategist, international statesman and politician was misunderstood and an enigma to many; but to a number of great thinkers in the second part of the 20th century, a source of wisdom in articulating the key dilemma facing Western civilization - that of the fragmentation and disassociation of knowledge.

In 1948, following his political defeat he stated his intention to revise his original book in the light of new knowledge. But he only managed the type a few introductory notes before his death in 1950, which are included in later pages. On these, the following commentary is made in an attempt to confirm his insights and continue his quest for a more humane society.

"We find instead of the hostility which is felt in life, that this is a friendly universe. We are all inter-related. The one helps the other. It is an idea that gives strength and peace and is bound to give a more wholesome view of life and nature that we have had so far."

Despair has always been the refuge of revolutionaries and anarchists who are unable to face the future with any confidence. Smuts’ faith in the future is inherent in his philosophy as affirmed jn the following :

"Everywhere I have seen that it was at bottom, a struggle for the Good, a wild striving for human betterment. The Holistic nisus which rises like a living fountain from the very depths of the universe is a guarantee that failure does not await us - that the ideals of well-being, of truth, beauty and goodness are firmly grounded in the nature of things - all expressions and ideas springing from the same root in language as in experience. The rise of wholes in the whole is the slow but unerring process and goal of this Holistic universe."

His work has also proved to have been conceptually prophetic of many scientific, psychological and social advances up to the present. The following is a brief account of those people and their respective and common thoughts, insights and actions that were foreseen by Smuts, but which have been buried in the often over-elaboration of his original thesis of Holism and Evolution which stands as monument of thought of the past century and a pointer to the future that has yet to reach its full potency.

Smuts had a restless inquiring mind. At the age of twenty-four, while taking two parts of his Cambridge Tripos in one year, he found his ease in writing a book never published "Walt Whitman- A study in the Evolution of Personality". Indeed, it was through the poetry of Whitman, combined with the Bible and his knowledge of science attained at Cambridge that the idea of Holism emerged as a coordinating principle of a creative evolution.

This he saw acting in throughout the universe and within all of nature as a natural tendency towards unity in diversity as a blending and ordering of multiple elements into new entities. But underlying all his Holistic imperatives can be seen a close identification with the African bush and the African culture of ‘Ubuntu’ expressed as :

“ I am because we are – and we are – because I am “


Evolution of - and to what ?Smuts especially countered evolution in the Darwinian sense of `natural selection'. Evolution he said could never be a mechanical sorting out of probabilities by design or sheer chance. that in conventional physics and biology has adhered to the narrow concept of causation.Instead he saw it in terms of principle and structure inter-penetrating each other and reacting as a process of physical, biological and mental states in a creative hierarchy of evolutionary stages with each re-vitalizing the other, leading to an ever higher state of unity.

“Everywhere the whole, even the least and most insignificant is the real wonder and miracle which holds the secrets for which we are groping in thought and conduct. To be a whole and to live in the whole becomes the supreme principles, from which all the highest ethical and spiritual rule follow, such as the ‘golden rule.’ And it links these rules with the nature of things, for not only goodness, love and justice that derive from it, but also beauty and truth. The whole is in fact both the source and the principle of explanation of all our highest ideals,

This universal concept was echoed in 1990 by Paul D. MacLean with his Triune Brain work [GD/1] and by Teilhard de Chardin who took as his starting point, the geological, biological and anthropological sciences for his book `The Phenomenon of Man' in which he declared :

“The need is for a synthesis of the sciences, over and above the individual branches of science, a synthesis that will give us knowledge about ourselves and our place in the universe.'

In his book ‘Vision in the Past’ [1925 ], Teilhard wrote “Nothing really exists in the universe except myriads of more or less obscure spontaneities. From top to bottom of the series of beings, everything is in motion which is that of the greatest consciousness”

This he postulated as an Òmega Point' of human consciousness that would even transcend our planet's biosphere which he termed the `Noosphere' as being beyond our physical atmosphere and the stratosphere which connects all things in a common realisation of their wholeness. This being somewhat reflective of the Indian concept of the Atman.

While the influence of Descartes still separates ‘matter’ and ‘spirit’, Teilhard maintained that these are not heterogeneous or antagonistic - each required the other – as two aspects of one and the same phenomenon; like the positive and negative aspects of electro- magnetism. Thereby it is said that Teilhard laid the foundations of a philosophy of history based on both science and experience, which appeared to him to be indispensable to religious thought. In short, it is the very influence of a scientific ideal of a truth on a personal experience that without being alien to reason cannot be wholly grasped by it.

Teilhard acknowledged the influence in his work of Henri Bergson who In ‘Creative Evolution’, describes life as a chain of an evolving intelligence from plant to animal on to man.The ultimate conclusion being that we have reached the limits of our intelligence and the need for and evidence of the higher faculty of ‘intuition’. But both Bergson and de Chardin found themselves caught between the prospect of a progressive future and the static nature of religion – and man’s dependence on one or the other - hence their need to find an inspiring resolution that would appeal to both,

“Always something new out of Africa.” “ Ex Africa semper aliquid novi” [Pliny 1 A.D.] The concept of Holism has been echoed by many thinkers and writers, especially by those who had spent some time in Africa which stand as monuments of what Africa has already given the world, and a pointer to what it may yet bring into a new tangible form. These include Carl Gustav Jung, whose concept of a Collective Unconscious, as a universal memory of archetypes, provides an explanation of the coincidental or synergetic phenomenon of common ideas and mythologies throughout history and across cultural boundaries, that is reflected in Ghandi's `Satiagraha' [Passive Resistance] philosophy and of Albert Schweitzer's ‘Reverence for Life’, [ See page 18 ]



Evolution in science In his writing Smuts gives a composite view of the historical development of biology up to Darwin and physics from Newton to the New Physics. In 1936, the eminent South African biologist Professor John Phillips, when visiting Columbia University, met Albert Einstein who told him that to his knowledge there were only eleven men at that time who truly understood the fundamental concept of Relativity : ‘Ten physicists,’ adding with a twinkle in his eye ‘ and your General Smuts.’

SynergeticsSmuts used the term ‘synthetic’ in meaning of the ‘synthesis’ inherent in Holism, but because of the modern interpretation those have come to mean a substitution or an amalgam of materials, the term ‘Synergy’ or `Synergetic is more relevant, as that used by Richard. Buckminster [Bucky] Fuller [GD/3] in expressing the principles of Holism through his mathematics and geodesic structures that demonstrate his own integrative philosophy in his books ‘Critical Path’ and ‘Utopia or Oblivion’ -being the choice that mankind is facing.

HolographyAs a clear example of the principle of Holism, Denis Gabor in 1947 produced the concept of Holography which through the interactions of laser technology could form a three-dimensional image as a hologram –that is as a Holistic image in which the smallest part contains and reproduces the whole.

In keeping with Smuts Holistic integration of the parts and the whole, the Quantum physicist David Bohm, a protégé of Einstein, developed what he termed a `holographic' view of the universe, by which each part in some sense contains the whole', taking as his starting point the notion of ùnbroken wholeness' - in that the picture of sub-atomic particles appears as a situation in which ` every particle consists of every other particle'. Building on this proposition, the neuro-psychologist Karl Pribram further developed a holographic model of the human brain as an instrument whose memory is not localised but distributed throughout the brain in a way that enables the memory to reconstruct its own images and paths of perception.

Smuts recognised , and experienced the reality of conflicts inherently present in society with its ever-rising complexity - but also sees their resolution in the concept of a Creative Evolutionwhich has been expressed scientifically in the new `Chaos' theories and that of `Fluctuating Dissonance' by the Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine that differentiates between ànarchy' and `chaos' in that the latter creates a stage of crisis build-up in people, systems, organisations or society from which either a breakdown or a breakthrough to a new order occurs. This Smuts foresaw how the patterns of wholes in which

“Each series of wholes progresses both in complexity of elements and unity up to a point, when it more or less suddenly mutates or swings into a new rhythm of type of pattern, which again shows the same holistic development, until it in turn gives birth to a new and higher type.While the lower grades are more mechanical, and the higher grades more holistic, the movement throughout is towards more and ever more wholeness.”

“Evolution is just this progressive complexifying of parts or co-operating elements with a simultaneous increase in unity of patterns with which they are blended. In other words, wholeness or holism characterizes the entire process of evolution, in an ever-increasing measure. And in the process is continuous, in the sense that the older types of whole or patterns are not discarded but become the starting point and the elements of the newer, more advanced patterns. Thus the material chemical patterns are incorporated into the biological patterns, and both of them into the subsequent psychical patterns or wholes”

The subject of ecology, which has only recently become a matter of public awareness, was a matter of direct interest to Smuts.

"The new science of ecology is simply a recognition of the fact that all organisms feel the force and moulding effect of the environment as a whole."


At a time when Professor Phillips and Smuts were discussing the principles of ecology, ìn flounced' Sarah Gertrude Millin, the author of his biography who asked him what Holism had to do with ecology. Smuts turned on her with a steely gaze and said, "Madam, had I known that you did not know that they are one and the same thing - you would not be writing that book !" Smuts moreover, had a great knowledge of the many grasses of Southern Africa and their resistance to droughts. In this respect, the story is also told of a visiting distinguished American botanist sometime in the 1920's who was walking with Smuts and the eminent botanist Professor Hancock, In asking him to identify a particular grass. Hancock handed it to Smuts who vividly described it and its distribution. Taken aback, the visitor asked, "How is it that I am learning all this not from you professor but from a General ?" To this Smuts replied, " Ah, but you see madam, I am only a general in my spare time."

The founder President of National Veld Trust, Smuts saw the conservation of the soil to be vital "True patriotism," he said to them, "is to be found in the love of the land and the desire to protect it." As we are only just beginning to re-establish what has been lost through injudicious farming practice. His words sixty years later are most relevant today.

“Drought cannot be fought with subsidies and loans to farmers. They can be fought by laying in stores of food reserves in times of plenty and by making every possible use of the valuable drought resistant grasses which Nature has so bountifully supplied us."

Alan Savoury in 1957, as a keen young biologist in what was then Northern Rhodesia, in true Smuts tradition conceived the veld practice of Holistic Management of resources from his awareness of a steady deterioration of the natural environment, not only through ignorance of the start-up farmer - but also as a result of a new found intelligence among professional agricultural experts who worked in isolation of each other.

Smuts’ passionate love for life and nature he could express in very emotive terms ,“The emotional appeal of Nature is tremendous, sometimes more than one can bear. For the overwrought mind there is no peace like Nature. For the wounded spirit there is no healing like hers. Some of my deepest emotional experiences have come to me on the many nights that I have spent under the open African sky."

This statement is significant since there exists a general view of Smuts as being a cold and remote person, but which was a silent criticism of those people who did not value his time and who merely wasted it on idle pursuits or conversation.

Anyone wishing to explore the origins of Smuts' vision of a Holistic universe could do no better than to start with him at the top of his beloved Table Mountain.

"The mountain is not something that is externally sublime. It has a great historical and spiritual meaning for us. It stands for us as a ladder of life. Nay more, it is the ladder of the soul. The mountains uphold us and the stars beckon to us. The mountains of our lovely land will make a constant appeal to us to live the higher life of joy and freedom. Table Mountain in particular preaches this great gospel. This is my cathedral. I come here for rest, relaxation, happiness and meditation. Who would deny me ? Give me the open spaces, a hard bed, plain food, the stars above me, the flowers, the birds and the wind in the trees."

In as much as the management of the plant and animal environments are in need of advanced management, so the future management of man and knowledge will determine the destiny of ourselves as a species, and possibly even that of the planet itself.

The scientific world honoured Smuts with the presidency of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in its centenary year. He was the recipient of twenty-seven international honorary doctorates and twenty-six national decorations in a time that such awards were a true recognition of worth, not political positions or statements.

[ See Addendum A ]


The legacy of SmutsIn an address of appreciation, Lord Todd, the Master of Christ`s College Cambridge said,

"Christ`s College where he (Smuts) studied, has more than five hundred years of history behind it, but I am sure that out of all our members past and present, we would choose three as truly outstanding - John Milton, Charles Darwin - and Jan Smuts. That is a measure of the respect in which he is held in his old college and in the university which was privileged in later years to have him as Chancellor.”

The problem with history is that the people who make it are often not around to see the consequences of their telling people things they did not want to hear.

His international reputation led to many invitations to be an advisor and to take up senior positions. Winston Churchill, during World War !!, had a photograph of Smuts on his desk to who he drew upon for advice in times of crisis. [See page over ]

It was he after all who contributed to the original preambles of both the ‘League of Nations’ and to the United Nations Organisation, in what was then a vain hope for the principles of Holism to take root.

In later contemplating his stormy political career, he said , ""We are still far, very far off from the attainment of a really Holistic society. It has been my lot to have passed many years amid the conflicts of men in their ways of council chambers. Everywhere I have seen the search for the Good with grim determination and earnestness, with a singularity of purpose which added to the poignancy of fratricidal strife."

Towards the end of World War II there arose the subject of a ‘New World Order’ to which Smuts responded that this was not necessary – as this had already been given to us ‘two thousand years ago - by the man from Galilee’.

In keeping with all in government service, Smut’s political actions were and still are open to criticism and misinterpretations. He was criticized, even condemned, for his attitudes towards the African peoples by stating in 1917 that they were ‘not ready for government’. However, it was on the occasion of his being installed as Chancellor of the University of Cape Town in 1937 that he affirmed his faith in South African people :

"More than any other country in the world, South Africa is a great human laboratory, where experiments in racial co-operation are essential to our future success. I have profound faith in them all, black and white and I am proud to be a South African. If only we can have more understanding and come down to a purely human level, I am sure that there is not a question we cannot solve, no difficulty we cannot overcome.

He was inducted with the highest military award of Field-Marshal by King George. And It was at his suggestion that the name of the British Empire was changed to a ‘Commonwealth’ of Nations. But he always returned to the land of his birth, saying,

"I am an Afrikaner and my soul is with my people. In no person's breast does the flame of dedication burn higher than mine." This despite the rejection he experienced from his own, particularly and maybe because of his equal determination to reconcile the Afrikaner and the English people.


Unfortunately, in working towards a true reconciliation between the Afrikaner and the English people after the ‘Boer War’ he was here regarded as being disloyal to his own people and in the 1948 election he lost to the new National Party. Despite the fact that it was earlier in l935 that he felt constrained to state,

"I have played the game by both Afrikaans and English-speaking South Africans. I have done my best to stand by both impartially. If a man like me who has done what I have done in the affairs of South Africa is not to be trusted any more, then I do not know who is to be trusted. They are shaking the very foundation which reflects, not so much on me, but on the whole of South Africa and the people of South Africa."

“OVERPOWERING SENSE OF LOSS“On the death of Smuts, Winston Churchill made the following statement to the British House of Commons [ September 13th 1950.]

“In all the numerous fields in which he shone – warrior, statesman, statesman, philosopher, philanthropist – Jan Smuts commands in his majestic career the admiration of us all. There is no personal tragedy in the close of so long and complete life as this. But his friends who are left behind to face the unending problems and perils of human existence feel an overpowering sense of impoverishment and irreparable loss. This sense is also the measure of the gratitude with which we and lovers of freedom and civilization in every land salute his memory.”

“He had the true simplicity of heart that everywhere makes great men to what they are and with his passing a light has gone out in the world “

[ Rt. Hon. Clement Atlee. Prime Minister of Great Britain. 1950

King George IV in a telegram of sympathy to Mrs Smuts “In peace and or in war his counsel and friendship were of inestimable value both to my father and to myself, while the force of his intellect has enriched the wisdom of the whole human race”

The retirement Following his exit from politics in 1948, Smuts expressed a desire to devote his time writing a book on his time as Attorney-General to President Paul Kruger. Secondly, to write on the grasses of South Africa, and thirdly to update the book ‘Holism and Evolution’ However, he was not able to do more than type the following few pages obtained from Prof. John Philips, complete with margin annotations and corrections in which he outlined his renewed affirmations of the concept of Holism and its implications for the future of humankind. In this, Smuts brings together the principle of Holism in its fundamental unity and continuity that underlies physical Matter, biological Life and the human Mind – indeed, in doing so he foresaw many aspects in science, philosophy, psychology and sociology that unfolded during the 20th century.


“HOLISM”by LT-GENERAL THE RIGHT HON J.C. SMUTS C.M. LLB

“HOLISM AND SCIENCE” “Holism [ from the Greek holos, whole ] makes the existence of ‘wholes’ a fundamental feature of the world. It regards natural objects, both animate and inanimate, as ‘wholes’ and not merely as assemblages of elements or parts. It looks upon nature as consisting of discrete concrete bodies and things, not as a diffusive homogeneous continuum. And these bodies or things are not entirely resolvable into parts. In one degree or another they are wholes which are more than the sum of their parts, and the mechanical putting together of their parts will not produce them or account for their characters or behaviour. The so-called parts do not properly or adequately express what has gone into the making of the thing as a whole.

“Wholes are not mere artificial constructions of thought; they point to something real in the universe, and Holism is the real operative factor. Holism implies two great departures from the orthodox scientific scheme of things. In the first place, matter, life and mind do not consist of fixed, constant and unalterable elements. And in the second place, besides the parts of elements in things, there is another factor – the whole has an influence and an effect all its own, in which reality is not diffuse and dispersive; on the contrary it is aggregative, ordered and structural

“Holism is therefore a viewpoint additional and complimentary to that of science, whose key words are continuity and mechanism. The ideal of science is continuity, and its method is based on the analysis of things into more or less constant elements or parts, the sum of whose actions account for the behaviour of these things. Things thus become mechanisms of their parts; not the interactions of their invariable parts in a homogeneous time and space according to the rules of mechanics are sufficient to account for all their properties. This mechanistic scheme applies even to living bodies, as their material structures determine the functions which absolute life characters.

“Mind is similarly, though much more doubtfully, based on physical mechanisms and functions. Life and mind are thus considered derivatives and epiphenomenal to matter. This inferior position it assigns to mind has remained an insuperable difficulty. And many biologists have also viewed its account of life as inadequate, and have supported the plea for vitalism or for life as a real force or factor, additional to those which operate on the physical plane.

“Finally the scientific scheme has been seriously undermined by the most recent discoveries in physical and mathematic science, which have resolved matter into variable energy, have destroyed the homogeneity of space and time and have thereby shaken the whole basis of fixed standards and accurate measurements on which the mechanistic scheme is founded. The value of the mechanistic concept for research is not questioned, but it can no longer be considered a true index of the concrete character of the universe and its contents.

“The Whole and the Parts“Holism is not only creative but self-creative. In fact the whole is not something additional to the parts. Taking a plant or an animal as a type of a whole, we notice that the fundamental holistic character as a unity of parts is more than the sum of its parts. The synthesis affects and determines the parts, so that they function towards the whole to reciprocally influence each other.

“What is involved in the concept of a whole ? In the first place, in so far as a whole is considered as consisting of parts of elements, they cannot be fixed, constant or unalterable. It must be possible for the part to be different in the whole from what is outside the whole; and in different wholes it must be different in each case from what it is in its separate state.

“The atoms of matter and the electrons and protons are on this view not constant and identical throughout, either in their isolated state or in the ‘whole’ of atoms, molecules and compounds which they compose. In so far as physical substances are ‘wholes’ their elements cannot be constant and unalterable, as they must be adjustable to the pattern of those whole.


“In the second place, in so far as the elements or parts cohere and coalesce into the structure or pattern of a whole, the whole must itself be an active factor or influence among them; otherwise it is impossible to understand how the unity of a new pattern arises from its elements. Whole and parts mutually and reciprocally influence and modify each other; the one is pliant to and moulded the other; and adjusted by the whole, just as the whole in turn depends on the co-operation of its parts. This adjustive, directive, controlling influence of the whole is just as real as the role in which the parts play in the make up of the whole

“Science and Philosophy.A consequence of our knowledge of the electromagnetic spectrum within the universe and electricity being composed of ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ components has been to regard duality as conflicts, as indeed Newton’s Third Law states that “Every force has an equal and opposite force.’ that is the basis of the parliamentary political system.

“While science is thus preoccupied with the details of structure, philosophy continues in very much on the old lines of exploring general points of view, general principles of behaviour, tendencies and concepts. The result of this divorce is lamentable in the extreme.

Just as the laws of electro-magnetism have given us electricity [ and we still do not know what it really is ] – so biologists, focussing on the cell and molecule are still confronted with that which is the plant’s ‘life force’ Indeed, it has been the very practice of analytical examination of the elements of either discipline that has shown that by dissecting and reassembling the parts of a ‘Whole’ does not create the original. As for instance water from oxygen and hydrogen. In this, he further cites the reality that the physicist has confronted us with that ‘matter’ is not ‘solid’ but a product of energy in atoms in both space and time.

“The real world is neither a mere principle nor a mere structure, neither a disembodied soul nor a soulless mechanism. Evolution is both structure and principle, interpenetrating each other, reacting on and vitalising each other .If we want to understand Evolution, we must develop concepts adequate to its actual process, which will as accurately as possible reproduce what goes on in the process of cosmic evolution. And it may be found that that the new concept is actually not a blend of them, but the original unity from which they have been disassociated”.

The solution to a better understanding of this interaction should he held be ultimately depend on the concept of Holism, not as an abstraction itself, but from a more extended knowledge of the physical, biological and mental elements he further described in the following a hand-written note that further expands on Holism in relation to matter in science.:

“HOLISM and EVOLUTION”‘Chapter III : Reformed concept of Matter [ Page 50 ] Revised : The Hon. J. C. Smuts”

“The above differences in the operation of the two factors of Radioactivity and organic descent from inherent differences between matter and life arise partly no doubt from other possible differences in their circumstances of a less fundamental character. This life is a mere child on this globe and is yet in the heyday of its growth and increase. As yet it recognises no limit or barrier in its first flush of youth.

“It spends with a lash predictability, which is in contrast to the frugality and conservation of matter, for which the laws of conservation of least action have become the last word of wisdom and the unbroken rule of action. So matter is old; old as the beginning, so old that its wrinkles are the fundamental curves of the Space-Time universe. Life has only just begun, since the yesterday of Eozoic times in the up-building of its new forms and types, and in this task it can proceed for millions of years to come.

“Matter on the contrary completed its active race probably more than a thousand million years before life began. It built up slowly and laboriously on nebular cold, solar heat, and amid conditions beyond the possibility of our knowledge or imagination, the elements from their simplest to their most complex forms, and from these again substances and compounds in rising complexity, until at last protoplasm life could be reached.


“And in the favouring bosom of protoplasm life could be nurtured from its simple chemical beginnings and launched in its great career most of which is still before it. Apparently the work of matter is done, as the great Space-Time curve is now reassessing from the more complex to the simpler form types or elements. just as in organic evolution we see a tendency for the most highly evolved and differentiated types to hark back for stability to simpler and stronger types. Radioactivity is doing today what organic descent [ when it will indeed have become a descent ] will do in the fullness of its time, when life’s spirit of adventure will have abated and its aim will be satisfy first and conservation rather than progress.

“Categories of Holism “Not only is the intimate character of reality illuminated, if not expressed, by the concept of Holism, but the categories which are used to describe or explain all natural happening also stand in very close relation to that concept.

In reviewing the past and contemplating a Holistic future he drew a picture of different categories of Holism compared to the dualities that still exist and which characterise our human dilemma - notably between :

o The Whole and the Partso Science and Philosophy o Cause and Effecto Genesis and Evolutiono Freedom and Determinationo Individuality and Universalityo Internal and External o The Mind and Bodyo Spontaneity and Controlo Abstractions and Structureso Fixed and Dynamic

“Cause and Effect.“The usual conception of the causal relation establishes an exact equation between cause and effect, and thus makes the element of creation or advance in natural happening unintelligible. For if the effect is never more than the cause, if cause is and must always necessarily be an exact measure of effect, this cannot be a creative progressive universe, and the causal category in this sense makes creative evolution impossible. The accepted fact of creative evolution is a proof that the usual concept of sense is too abstractly and narrowly conceived, that in the universe effect can and sometimes does transcend cause, although usually on so small a scale as to create the illusion of their equality. Here again the idea of wholes, gives the clue and explanation.

“In so far as causes operate holistically, that is to say, where several factors contribute towards the making of new wholes, their operation is creative, there is more in the effect than the cause or combination of causes, and real creative advance results. Purely mechanical causation [ which is perhaps mere fiction ] is equative and is correctly expressed by the ordinary causal concept. But holistic causation, which is the real process, makes possible the increase and advance which is actually the fact of nature.

“Genesis and Evolution “Evolution no mere vague creative impulse, but something quite specific in its operation, and is thus productive of the real character of cosmic Evolution.”

“Two conceptions of genesis have prevailed. The one regards all reality as given in form and substance at the beginning either actually or implicitly. And the subsequent history as merely the unfolding of this implicit content. The other view posits a minimum of the given at the beginning that makes the process of Evolution creative of reality”.

“Theology and philosophy favours the former, while science has more exclusively concentrated on the latter. However, in accepting much of the evidence of Darwin’s theory, we have failed to make the fundamental readjustment in our views which that acceptance involves


“The narrowing down of all concepts as being merely adaptable has meant the wiping out of their ‘fields’ of interaction as facts of nature and the rendering of the evolution as creative to be impossible. In fact, ‘selection’ of the new variation is in such cases not the external Natural Selection to which Darwin attributed so much importance, but the internal ‘holistic selection’ due to the functioning of the animal or plant constitution as a whole.

“Evolution is not merely a process of change, regrouping of the old into new forms. The old static view of reality with its fixed elements and species has been replaced with Holism as a continuing process of creative synthesis that operates dynamically to cover both inorganic and biological substances on to an evolution of the highest manifestations of the human spirit.

Smuts averred that nineteenth century science went wrong because :“The old mechanical view-points persist and Natural Selection itself has come to be looked upon as a mere mechanical factor, because it is viewed as a statistical average; and because of the hard and narrow dogma of causation which dominated it. It was the fixed Dogma that there could be no more to the effect than there was in the cause, - hence creativeness and real progress became impossible

In addition to the concept of causation which has narrowed all concepts into abstraction and generalisation with specialised categories of study that has not given due recognition of the respective ‘fields’ in which the elements of physical Matter, biological Life and the human Mind meet and intermingle creatively.

“Not only do they actually co-exist and intermingle, they appear to be genetically related and to give rise to each other in the stages and course of cosmic Evolution.”

“Freedom and Determination “In the same way and on the same grounds, the concept of the whole and of holistic happening resolves the old controversy between freedom and determination in nature. The chain of necessity arises from the ordinary causal concept which equates cause with effect without reminder, and thus makes the cause determine the effect completely. If this causal concept is wrong, the inference of necessity becomes unjustified.

“So far as there is an undetermined creative element in the holistic effect, not attributable to the conspiring causal elements, to that extent there is indetermination and freedom, infinitesimally small and practically negligible in physical sensation, but much more marked and appreciable in organic happening, and still more so in mental processes. An element of freedom thus becomes recognised as inherent in nature, which increases with the process of evolution, and becomes the basis for moral responsibility. Freedom is native to the holistic universe, and is not merely an attribute of the human will, in accordance with the usual view.

“Spontaneity and ControlOrganisms or biological wholes are not isolated units, but are genetically relate and arise as variations from each other. And they do not exist apart from their surroundings, the influence of which on them is part temporary, and confined to the individual duration of each whole, and in part. The view of an organisms of wholes, instead of mere mechanisms and of their variations and genetic evolution as holistic is important, and gives the right orientation for the solution of biological problems. Thus variations are not isolated products of individual factors or genes, but are the expression of the total energy or developmental tendency of animals and plants as [wholes]. The variation is holistic, that is to say, is the outcome of the total tendency of the organism, and not merely any part of it.

“In other words, wholeness or Holism characterizes the entire process of evolution, in an ever-increasing measure. And in the process is continuous in the sense that the older types of whole or patterns are not discarded but become the starting point and the elements of the newer, more advanced patterns. Evolution is just this progressive complexifying of parts or co-operating elements, with a simultaneous increase in unity of patterns with which they are blended. “It is thus a rising series of whole, from the simplest material patterns to the most advanced, which involve a complication of material, physiological and psychical element, but with the aspect of unity, inner direction, and central control always increasing.


“The idea of wholes and wholeness should not be confined to the biological domain. Philosophers have occupied themselves with general principles, while scientists mostly occupy themselves with the investigation of concrete things, organisms, structures and the like, more and more burying themselves in details, exploring facts to their minutest details, and looking to ever greater specialisation to give clues to unsolved problems of structure, the structure of matter and the physical universe; the structure of cells and organisms as explaining the systems of life, to the structure of the nervous system and the brain with a view to understanding the higher reaches of the human species.

“External and Internal “The transformation of the external into the internal or ‘self’ aspect is not confined to the mental level but is seen already on the level of organic life. Thus in the process of metabolism, an organism continually takes up external material which it transforms, and assimilates into its own system. On the mental level we see the process of transformation vastly accentuated. External stimuli and impressions are continuously assimilated and transformed into psychical elements; what is object or other becomes subject and self. In the subtle creative chemistry of the personality otherness is converted into selfness, the material into a mental and the necessary into the free.

“The conditions which externally determined and bound me, become incorporated into the pattern of myself and are thus converted into elements in my own self-determination and freedom. All this only confirms the impression that in the whole the external or material is but an aspect or phase which is continually being passed in the creative process. “The world-process tends from matter through to life to mind and spirit, from necessity to freedom, from externality of elements to the inwardness and selfhood of wholes. In this sense the world is truly, as Keats finely said, ‘the valley of soul-making’; but we must recognise that souls are only its climax phase, and that lower wholes of many grades characterize its earlier phases. Whole-making, rather than soul-making, would be a correct description of the world-process.

“HOLISM IN PSYCHOLOGY “When we come to apply the above ideas and principles to psychology and ethics, we find that the results of Holism are in close agreement with the facts. In both we find a continual whole-making tendency associated with mental activity. There is an increasing building-up of higher patterns out of lower ones. Thus on the basis of neural sense stimuli, sensations again blend into higher perceptions in which it is no longer possible to disentangle the fused sensations. Similarly, concepts, judgments, general laws and principles are reached as the result of the synthesis and fusion of innumerable percepts, images, concepts and judgments.

“It must however be recognized that mental patterns however holistic in structure, are not true whole on a par with natural wholes such as organisms. technically it would be better to call them ‘holoids’, as they may the structure and many of the characteristics of wholes, but lack the individual existence and power of self-reproduction which natural wholes possess. Their power however must not be underrated. Mental wholes, such as the blended percepts and concepts which denote objects, can be quite individual and distinct; while ideas and ideals when fused with emotion may attain a force which gives them more than the power of real things. The great slogans of science and politics and religion are dynamic realities and have repeatedly produced far-reaching effects on history.

“Mind and Body “Throughout the evolutionary process, lower wholes have given birth to higher wholes and become incorporated with them. Thus material chemical patterns have produced life-patterns which have incorporated and not discarded the parent patterns. Mind is a new organ or pattern developed inside the earlier physical and biological structures; and the three, inextricably interwoven into a new pattern, constitute a new view or Personality. The three sets of patterns are not independent reals superimposed on each other; they have arisen the one inside the other and are blended into the whole of personality, which constitutes and explains the unity and inter-relations between the three.


These relations of mind and body would be inexplicable on mechanical grounds, and have in fact presented an insoluble problem to philosophy throughout the ages. But here again the whole supplies the key. Once we view Personality as a real whole, containing earlier blended wholes as its parts, the unity of the whole is seen to underlie and make possible the relations between them, which however are not ‘mechanical’ but holistic.

“Holistic relations are such as exist, not externally as between different parts, but internally as different aspects of the same whole. In fact we have reached the point where we may restate the concept of the above set forth, and show it, not as the relation of the parts to the whole [ because this formulation is provisional and still savours of mechanical associations] but as the contrasted aspects of the whole from the outside or the inside, from an external an standpoint or from its own standpoint.

“The parts represent its external aspect, which is mechanical; the whole is its aspect from its own standpoint, the view of the whole as a self, so to say. The relation of whole and parts is thus transformed into the relation of self and not-self, with which we are acquainted as the subject-object relation in psychology. wholeness is itselfness.“The concept of the whole therefore, when properly understood, enables us to describe the nature of reality in terms which satisfy the conditions both of physics and psychology, and at the same time disclose body and mind as different [ external and internal ] aspects of the same thing. This is the key to all their relations. The reality, the true whole, is personality in each case; apart from it the human body is neither human nor a body. Similarly, mind apart from the whole of personality becomes a functionless abstraction.

“The whole as creative explains the relation between matter and life, between body and mind. It rules out both materialism and parallelism. In the whole , for instance, mind arises as a new factor X as the basis for awareness or neural elements, a.b.c. etc .which become fused and synthesized, and to the extent that X is new it is also, and for that very reason, without a neural correlate. The psychical is thus more than its physiological neural antecedents, although arising from them, and the overplus in mind has no emergent wholes are different from and transcend those of the elements or lower wholes from which they have arisen and cannot be discovered by searching of the lower patterns.

“Individual and the Universal“These are equally characteristic of Evolution. The universal realises itself, not in isolation from the actual, but in and through individual bodies, in particular things and facts.The temple of the Spirit is the structure of matter – neither is true without the other. All this may sound like truisms and platitudes, but it comes to this; that the pursuit of the separate paths of science and philosophy will not bring us to our goal. Their roads must converge. The pathway to the real is neither abstract general principles nor the wilderness of details.

“The concept of wholes is also basis to the category of individuality. The organic unity which contributes to the whole is in fact the ultimate basis of individuality. Of this there are traces in organic nature already, but it is only on the organic level that individuality assumes practical importance. Plants are individuals, perhaps without having any individuality, but among the higher animals the feature of individuality becomes of real importance. Dogs, horses and even lower animals have distinct character and individuality. With the emergence of conscious mind in man, the aspect of individuality becomes all-important, and becomes the basis for the latest and greatest whole of evolution, the basis of personality.

“In mental development, there are two aspects, the universal tendency, which culminates in the reason, creative of rational order and universal concepts and laws; and the contrasted individual tendency, which creates reaches an especial development in conscious mind, and constitutes the unique identity or self of the human personality. Individuality rising into personality is perhaps the chief differentia of the human level of evolution. Individuality and reason are the principal constituents of personality, and both are an expression of holism and have their roots in primitive wholes


PERSONOLOGYSmuts, was critical of the sciences of psychology and psychiatry in that they did not appear to fully appreciate the importance of Personality and suggested the formation of a new Holistic Science of Personology, Alfred Adler, an early Freudian psychologist was one of the first to write to Smuts on the publication of `Holism and Evolution", saying that he looked upon it as supplying a scientific and philosophical basis for a great advance in psychology.

Smuts held that the justifiable attempt at separating Body, Mind and Spirit has landed us in an inextricable confusion, which has vexed the soul of philosophy for hundreds of years. Ultimately he saw the Mind as the third great fundamental structure in the rising nisis of Holism after Matter and Life with the human Personality placed as the highest whole of wholes which had yet to be fully understood - and indeed realised. Personology, Smuts proposed should not be yet another sub-division of psychology, but as new and independent study and synthesis of human experience and expression.

“The rehabilitation of the body is not the least of the magnificent services which science has rendered to human welfare. The body is worse than the spirit, and can be abused, just as the spirit can be perverted. It is the severance of body and spirit which makes ignoble use of either. Holism is the cure and the remedy alike for the abuse and perversion.

Only in recent years has the need to treat the `Whole person' been accepted, as for example the introduction of Psycho-synthesis of Assigioli and the work of Carl Rogers who pioneered the techniques of counseling for facilitating the reconstruction of personalities, which while in South Africa shortly before his death he applied to in and between groups.It can well be said the Smuts foresaw the principle of the `Collective unconscious' later developed by Carl Gustav Jung, in stating :

“We are one with nature. Her genetic fibres run through all our being. Our physical organs connect us with millions of years of her history. Our minds are full of memorial paths to human experience."

Smuts thereby saw Personology as a scientific synthesis that should form the crown of an evolutionary basis for a new ethic, comprising a truer spiritual outlook that we have been able to manifest due to our ignorance and the confusions that have grown from our present state of knowledge.

“The intellect is practical, differential, analytical, selective, purposeful; it is at once the principle and the instrument of action and to choose what is useful for its purpose. Practical intellect selects what it wants and ignores or simply does not notice the rest. The result is a hopelessly lop-sided affair, and but for Instinct and Intuition – another twin of this marriage who partake more of the reality - truth in the universe would be distorted beyond recognition.- Thus the material chemical patterns are incorporated into the biological patterns, and both of them into the subsequent psychical patterns or wholes. “The fact is that the real indefinable quality of a true Personality is inward and is not reflected in the life of unrelieved externality which people live.”

Smuts’ analysis here indicates a further intuitive grasp of the phenomenon of ‘Dissipative Structures’ of Ilya Prigogine, and of order being created in jumps from a seeming chaos

“Each series of wholes progresses both in complexity of elements and unity up to a point, when it more or less suddenly mutates or swings into a new rhythm of type of pattern, which again shows the same holistic development, until it in turn gives birth to a new and higher type.“While the lower grades are more mechanical, and the higher grades more holistic, the movement throughout is more towards more and ever more wholeness. Electrons and protons, atoms and molecules, inorganic and organic compounds, colloids, protoplasm, plants and animals, minds and personalities are built steps in this movement of holism.

“IS REALITY A WHOLE ?Going still farther afield, the question is raised whether Reality itself is one and a whole, or whether it is a pluralistic structure in which individuality has full scope and an assured future. Here one can but ask the question without attempting to answer it. Perhaps in the end it will be found that no answer is possible. This is not a completed universe, but a universe in the making; and there may be wholes great and small in the making beyond the comprehension of our limited faculties.The destiny of the individual lies beyond human ken; here is really a case for natural ‘piety’


“HOLISM AS CREATIVE ACTIVITY“So far as the above account holism has been put forward as a way out of some of the difficulties which under the most recent scientific advances, arise on the orthodox mechanistic theory. But is it here further suggested as a solution of the greatest of all which has arisen from the more recent contact of science and philosophy. This is the problem of creativeness or epigenesist in evolution.

“It is commonplace now that this is a growing evolving world that new forms and types arise from the old, and that in the course of history of the earth, the forms of life have progressed from the simplest and lowest to the very highly organized types of today, culminating in the human personality.

“The name ‘active evolution’ has in consequence been applied in this process. And the question arises as to the meaning of the term ‘creative’ in this connection. There was the older philosophical view that the new is already existing in minutest shape, ‘preformed’ in the old, and that the creative process is simply an unfolding or unpacking of the new forms already existing in the old forms.

“How can a variation or a new species arise in some inexplicable unpredictable way from a lower simpler pre-existing state of affairs or species ? Some attempt to explain the riddle by virtually roading into the old what energies in the new, and thus in effect returning to the ‘pre-formation’ view, [Leskky Journal of Philos Studies Oct 1927 p. 492]. to which some other thinkers seem inclined in any case to return openly as the only way out. [ P. Otto. ‘The idea of the Holy’ ch.. XIV ]

“This is all very unsatisfactory, and the question arises whether we are forced to admit the existence of some mysterious irrational element within the central sphere of science. It would be most awkward for philosophy to make such an admission in respect of this key position of evolution. If science – so largely the product or reason – calls for the concept of creative evolution, and philosophy appears to be stultified and virtually to abdicate her sovereign position.

““It is here suggested that the explanation is to be found in the concept of the whole. For this concept opens the door directly to creativeness. The whole is creative; wherever parts conspire to form a whole, there something arises which is no more than the parts. It is the very nature and concept of the whole from its parts is an instance or the more arising from the less, the higher from the lower, in a way which does no violence to reason, but on the contrary follows from reason, because the concept of a whole in relation to its parts is a product of reason.

“Creative Evolution is therefore an inexplicable process, unless we link it to the concept of wholes, and look upon the growing evolving universe as a universe of wholes. It is the making of wholes which makes this universe creative, and the creative universe is therefore the Holistic universe.

HOLISM IN SOCIOLOGY“If the theory of Holism is capable of illuminating the field of psychology and the other mental sciences, no less fruitful will be the application to the social sciences. The great structure of the State, the Church and all other institutions of society bear testimony to the whole-making power of the human personality.

“In Anthropology, Sociology and politics, Holism will not only simplify theory, but also bring those young sciences nearer to the actual facts. The facts are essentially holistic and Holism supplies the key for their interpretation. ”We are members of one another” expresses truly the holistic nature of society. “Here too however, a word of warning is necessary. Just as in mental science, we are dealing here with holoids rather than wholes, Society, the State, the church and other social institutions are not real wholes, but structures on the analogy and with many of the properties of real wholes.


“The individuals who compose these structures are the real wholes, whose personalities are not suppressed or merged in the larger structures. On the contrary, the really important factor remains human personality, and its great erections in society have for their highest purpose the fostering and spiritual advancement of this supreme whole of personality which has been achieved in the course of evolution. This is not a mere matter of speculation, but one of the most far-reaching practical importance for the ordering of human society and the position of the individual in it.

“FORMS AND MONADSThe Monads of Leibniz, again approached the central concept of Holism, but the time was not ripe for a full recognition, and the theory remained a metaphysical speculation. Holism is today in a happier position. It enthrones the idea of a whole in a setting prepared by science itself, and it appears therefore as a practical way out of very real difficulties both for science and philosophy.

“The concept of wholes is by no means unknown to philosophy or even to science, but no systematic use of it has been made by either of them. Science has on the whole followed the clue of mechanism, but is now getting to its limits. Philosophy more than once definitely approached the concept of the whole without ever appreciating its real value. Thus Aristotle’s remarkable doctrine of Forms and the shaping of matter is not far removed from the concept of the whole in relation to its parts.

ETHICS AND METAPHYSICS OF HOLISM “Although the history of Holism frankly accepts the material basis of the world and recognises the natural order as Idealism cannot, yet it fully justifies the claims of the spirit in the interpretation of the world. The concept of the whole enables us to overcome some of the most difficult and poignant contrasts in life and thought. We are constantly confronted with the opposition between matter and spirit, between the temporal and the eternal, between the phenomenal and the real. Holism shows these opposites as reconciled and harmonized in the whole. It shows whole and parts as aspects of the other; the finite is identified with the infinite, the particular with the universal.

“Eternity is contained in time; matter is the vesture and vehicle of spirit, reality is not a transcendent and other-worldly order, but is immanent in the phenomenal. To attain to reality, we need not fly away from appearance; each little centre and whole in the world, however lowly, is a laboratory in which time is transmuted into eternity, the phenomenal into the real. The wondrous truth is everywhere; the plummet let down anywhere will reach down to unknown depths; any cross-section in the world of appearance will reveal the very texture of reality.

“Everywhere the whole, even the least and most insignificant apparently, is the real wonder, the miracle which holds the secrets for which we are groping in thought and conduct. Here is the within which is the beyond. To be a whole and to live in the whole becomes the supreme principles, from which all the highest ethical and spiritual rules [such as the ‘golden rule’ ] follow. And it links these rules with the nature of things, for not only goodness, love and justice derive from it, but also beauty and truth. The whole is in fact both the source and the principle of explanation of all our highest ideals, no less than of the earlier evolutionary structures already discussed.

Signed : J.C.S.


AN ‘ECOLOGY OF KNOWLEDGE’in the face of the dilemma that is facing humankind, due to the fundamental change from an industrialized to an information-driven society, Jerzy Wojciechowski, Professor of Philosophy of Ottawa University, contends that the central issue of this time is that of the relationship between man and his knowledge, whereby we are at a crucial point in the process of humanization as a species in which the very foundations of our belief in, and our relationship to knowledge is being challenged. with an ever more serious question : ‘Can humankind survive the growth of knowledge ?’ For in the light of the ìnformation explosion' it has been said that we have become knowledge junkies, ‘mainlining’ information, specializing in it, analyzing it and mostly publishing it - thus spawning the cynical comment :" If you are not confused - then you cannot be well informed. This implies that the external body of knowledge is apparently outgrowing the brain's capacity to control it and comprehend it.

Wojciechowski therefore called for an Ècology of Knowledge', [1973] as the situation he says, is paradoxical to say the least; in that although we are living in a time of unparalleled technical advance in living standards, the world's problems are consequently increasing in proportion to the development of knowledge. Never before, he warns, in the history of our species have we had such a capacity to improve our quality of life - or to destroy ourselves and even the planet itself.

For centuries we have worshipped knowledge as a harbinger of good things. But in these times of environmental degradation, we are now painfully aware that our intellect is not only the provider of solutions to problems, but the author of just those problems that should never have been allowed to reach the present stage of self-destruction. What specially confronts us in these times is the uncomfortable realisation that somehow our intellectual capacity to think and reason has not lived up to our expectations. Clinging hopefully and tenaciously to the concept that `reason overcomes violence’ we have tended to discount the fact that almost anything can be made to appear `reasonable' – as for instance the dropping of a nuclear bomb. Therefore, far from knowledge being an unmixed blessing, and far from it being a civilizing influence, knowledge would appear to have been used as much for increasing the scope, ingenuity and intensity of our more primitive aggressive instincts.

All the important evolutionary changes that have taken in the past have resulted in changes in Mindsets regarding the universe as a whole and its implications on earth including its inhabitants, as when Copernicus showed us a heliocentric universe. Then how Newton, with the laws that described the mechanics of forces and movement was followed by Einstein and the relativity of energy with the combination of the former discrete elements of Matter, Space and Time, plus Darwin whose Origin of Species has generated a still on-going debate on that of our human origins.

Thereby Smuts occupies a special place that directly addresses the crucial matter of the relationship between man and the knowledge he has created. The necessary change in perception of what constitutes knowledge is every bit as profound and necessary as the change which took place in the sciences when it was discovered that the earth was not flat and the sun did not revolve around the earth. Such a change, Wojciechowski believes, should follow ecological principles. For just as the natural environment calls for the management of land and wild-life, so the new need is for the management of knowledge and people.

It was Einstein who placed his finger on the root of the dilemma facing both himself and every human being concerned with the survival of ourselves as a species and society, with his now famous statement which is still pertinent today :

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved with the same level of thinking we were at when we created them created them “

[ See : “THE GREAT DIVIDES “GD/0 ]


Albert Schweitzer.The same concern for the disparate state of humankind was expressed In his autobiography ‘Out of My Life and Thought’ [1949] Having achieved degrees in Medicine, Music and Theology and a lifetime of studies in the human condition, he reflects :

"All that I learned from philosophy about ethics left me in the lurch. The conceptions of The Good which it have offered were all so lifeless, so un-elemental, so narrow and so destitute of content that it was quite impossible to bring them into union with an affirmative attitude.

This sense of disillusionment led him to move to Africa to establish a ‘hospital’ that was relevant to their circumstance. For this he was criticized for its ‘un-hygienic’ practices and his seeming withdrawal from social contact. Even then his negative attitude to life persisted

“I also had to recognize the fact that the central province of philosophy, into which meditation on civilization and attitude toward the world had led me, was practically unexplored land. Now from this point, now from that, I tried to penetrate to its interior, again and again I had to give up the attempt. I was already exhausted and disheartened. I saw, indeed, the conception needed before me, but could not grasp it”

While in this mental condition he had to undertake a journey on a small steamer to attend to the wife of a missionary, 160 miles up river from Lambarene. Lost in thought he sat looking out on the passing scene, struggling to find an elementary and universal conception of the ethical which he had not found in any of his studies or experience.

“Sheet after sheet I covered with disconnected sentences, merely to keep myself concentrated on the problem. Late on the third day, at the very moment of the sunset, we were making our way through a herd of hippopotamuses, there flashed upon my mind, unforeseen and unsought, the phrase “Reverence for Life”. The iron door had yielded: the path in the thicket had become visible. Now I had found my way to the idea in which affirmation of the world and ethics are contained side by side.”

Later, his attempts to qualify the basis and or extent and practice of the philosophy were not fully achieved or appreciated. Yet, as is often the case, a proposition can often be proved by its opposite – the reality of our current world that has seen not a ‘Reverence’ but a Contempt for Life.

It was such a common concern over the fragmentation of Western knowledge and ethics that Smuts shared with Albert Schweitzer and Jerzy Wojciechowski, but which can find a resolution in his formulation of Holism, where he states :

"I wish to emphasize how important it is, not merely to continue the acquisition of knowledge, but also to develop new viewpoints from which to explore new concepts. New co-ordinations are required; new syntheses which will sum up explain and illuminate the otherwise amorphous masses of material."

UBUNTU and HOLISMWithin the concept of Holism is the echo of the African concept ‘Umuntu mgamantu umgabanthu’’ - [ “A person is a person through other people” - and “I am because we are – and we are because I am”] which in turn effectively dissolves the Western Cartesian dichotomy, dilemma and debate over which serves which – the individual or society.

THE NEUROLOGICAL REVOLUTION Since the human brain is the origin of all thought, it has been the source of an eternal struggle to comprehend the relationship between reality and the brain, and brain to the mind, in the latter half of the 20th century many of its working being revealed through intensive research in tracking its billions of neural connections with techniques of mapping and scanning. Indeed the 1972 Nobel Prize winner Gerald Edelman recorded

“In the past ten years we have learned more about the brain - than in all of history”.This has been especially evident since 1970 with the many books having been written expounding its many known and unknown functions which can be professionally enlightening and intellectually stimulating, - but to the ordinary person can only increase confusion.


A TRIUNE PERSONOLOGYUltimately and equally, the manifestation of Holism is not and cannot be an intellectual exercise – but has to be a new level of consciousness that when operating has a capacity for integrating an often dysfunctional brain. Such a capacity was identified by Dr Paul D. MacLean from four decades of neurological research. As Director at the US National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, he confirmed that which Smuts had pointed out regarding the dichotomy that has existed between philosophy as a product of the Mind and the hard sciences that have focused primarily on the structure of the brain.

In his book of 29 chapters “Triune Brain in Evolution – Role in Paleocerebral Functions”, MacLean has provided clinical scientific evidence of the history of our human neurological ancestry over millions of years having gone through a succession of evolutionary quantum leaps, which suggests - that the brain is still in a process of evolution.

“In its evolution, the human forebrain has expanded to great size while retaining the basic features of the three formations that reflect our ancestral relationship to reptile, early mammals and recent mammals. Radically different in structure and chemistry and in an evolutionary sense countless generation apart, the three formations constitute a hierarchy of three brains in one, or what may be called a Triune brain. Such a situation indicates that we are obliged to look at ourselves and the world through the eyes of three quite different mentalities.”

The fact that these three basic brains are so different, genetically. functionally, electrically and chemically, raises the question whether a fourth ‘brain’ of level of consciousness is necessary to synthesize them and lead humankind into a new era of holistic understanding why and how we create all our institutions in the manner of these levels of consciousness, and how the limitations of intellectual comprehension and confusions can be transcended.[GD/1]

P RINCIPLE REFERENCES Smuts J.C. “Holism and Evolution” [1926]Smuts J.C “Plans for a Better World”[ 1942 ] Smuts J.C. “Greater South Africa { Collective Speeches : 1940]Trowbridge A “Holism – 60 Years on “ [ The Star 1986 ]Nattrass, G. “Smuts : Memoirs of the Boer War “[ 1994 ]Blankenberg P. B. “The Thoughts of General Smuts “[ 1951]de Chardin, Teilhard “The Phenomenon of Man” Capra, Fritjof “The Turning Point” [1982] Fuller, R. Buckminster “Critical Path” St Martins Press 1962Fuller, R. Buckminster ‘Utopia or Oblivion” [1970 ]Savory, Alan ‘Holistic Resource Management’ [ 1978]MacLean. P.D. “Education and the Brain [1978]

[The National Society for the Study of Education [Illinois]MacLean. P.D. “A Mind of the three Minds : Educating the Triune Brain. [1978]

[The National Society for the Study of Education [ Illinois]MacLean. P.D. “The Triune Brain, Emotion and Scientific bias [1979]

[ Neurosciences The Rockefeller University Press ]Esser A.H “Experiences of crowding [1973]

[Social Psychology Vol. 4 ]Wojciechowski, Jerzy “Knowledge as a source of problems”

[Man-Environment Systems 1975]Toynbee, Arnold “Study of History” [1939 ]Driesch. Hans “Philosophy of Organism” [1908]

“The Problem of Individuality” [1914]Haldane J.B. “Mechanism, Life and Personality [1921]Alexander, S. “Space, Time and Deity”Morgan Lloyd “Emergent Evolution” [1925]

“Life, Mind and Spirit” [1926]


ADDENDUM AHONOURS to Jan Christiaan Smuts

UK.O.M. Order of Merit Privy CounsellorFellow of the Royal SocietyKing George V Jubilee MedalKing George VI Coronation medla

FOREIGN DECORATIONSOrder of Merit [USA]Service medal Mediterranean Area [USA]Order of the Tower and Sword. [ Portugal] Grootkruis van de Orde van de NetherlandsGrand Cordon of the Order of Mohamed Ali [ Egypt]Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Saviour [ Greece.Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold [ Belgium ]Legion d’Honneur Croix de Commandeur [ France ]Croix de Guerre [ Belgium ]La Grande Croix de l’Ordre de Etoile Christian X Medaille [ Denmark ]

HONORARY DEGREESLL.D : Universities of :CambridgeEdinburghGlasgowWales DublinManchesterSheffieldCardiff Montreal [ Canada ]BaltimoreColumbiaNew YorkSt Andrews [ Utrecht ]Ariston Andries [ Greece ]Leyden Cape Town F.R.C.P. EdinburghD.C.L. OxfordD.C.L. DurhamD.Sc. LondonPh.D. Athens Ph.D. CaliforniaPh.D. Stellenbosch D.Litt. PretoriaThe Great Seal of Massachusetts. James Cook medal [ Royal Society ]

HONOURED POSITIONSPresident British AssociationRector : St Andrews University [ Scotland ]Chancellor Cambridge UniversityChancellor of the University of Cape TownWinston Churchill’s War CabinetFounding member of :- National Veld Trust [S.A] -League of Nations -United Nations


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Gd 0 2 Smuts, Holism and Evolution