ygolo
My termites win
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2007
- Messages
- 6,004
People who cannot handle analysis, like to talk about how they "hate reductionism", and "prefer being holistic instead", as if somehow, understanding the parts somehow makes one incapable of understanding the whole.
Admittedly, there is a point that one can become too focused on details that one "misses the forest for the trees". That point is taken, and noted. But most people are willing to step back and look at the big picture. Some, however, have some allergic reaction to analysis, as if, somehow, looking at the details means never again being able to see the whole.
Why is this?
some relevant things:
An article in the context of biology:
http://iai.asm.org/content/79/4/1401.full#ref-15
some relevant quotes from the article:
Admittedly, there is a point that one can become too focused on details that one "misses the forest for the trees". That point is taken, and noted. But most people are willing to step back and look at the big picture. Some, however, have some allergic reaction to analysis, as if, somehow, looking at the details means never again being able to see the whole.
Why is this?
some relevant things:
An article in the context of biology:
http://iai.asm.org/content/79/4/1401.full#ref-15
some relevant quotes from the article:
Methodological reductionism and holism are not truly opposed to each other (15). Each approach has its limitations. Reductionism may prevent scientists from recognizing important relationships between components or organisms in their natural settings, appreciating the evolutionary origins of processes and organisms, grasping probabilistic relationships underlying complicated and seemingly chaotic events, or perceiving heterogeneity and emergent multilevel properties of complex systems. Holism, on the other hand, is inherently more challenging due to the complexity of living organisms in their environment. Fundamental principles may be difficult to discern within complex systems due to confounding factors like redundancy and pleiotropy. Signal may be swamped by noise. The technology is seductive, but more data do not necessarily translate into more understanding. It is not yet certain whether current approaches to holism, such as systems biology, are adequate to cope with the challenges posed by emergent properties of complex biological systems. When fecklessly performed, systems biology may merely describe phenomena without providing explanation or mechanistic insight (9) or create virtual models that lack biological relevance.
“Reductionism is one of those things, like sin, that is only mentioned by people who are against it.â€
—Richard Dawkins