Sietze Bosman

Dec 11, 2023

Sietze Bosman argues that a holistic worldview can inspire a natural moral doctrine aligned with the inherent order of creation.

The concept of holism was first introduced by Jan van der Smuts, a South African general, statesman, and philosopher. Where Smuts shaped his thesis on the relation between evolution and the concept of holism, I argue that by viewing the world as a holist entity, we can distill a moral doctrine from the natural order that follows from the holist view.

Here is an excerpt from van der Smuts’ book Holism and Evolution that outlines his vision of the order of holism:

The ascending order of wholes or the stages in which Holism expresses itself in the progressive phases of reality may therefore be roughly and provisionally summarised as follows:

1. Definite material structure or synthesis of parts in natural bodies but with no more internal activity known at present than that of mere physical or chemical forces or energies: e.g. in a chemical compound.

2. Functional structure in living bodies, where the parts in this specific synthesis become actively cooperative and function jointly for the maintenance of the body: e.g. in a plant.

3. This specific cooperative activity becomes coordinated or regulated by some marked central control which is still mostly implicit and unconscious: e.g. in an animal.

4. The central control becomes conscious and culminates in Personality; at the same time it emerges in more composite holistic groups in Society.

5. In human associations this central control becomes super-individual in the State and similar group organisations.

6. Finally, there emerge the ideal wholes, or holistic Ideals, or absolute Values, disengaged and set free from human personality, and operating as creative factors on their own account in the upbuilding of a spiritual world. Such are the Ideals of Truth, Beauty and Goodness, which lay the foundations of a new order in the universe. Through all these stages we see the ever-deepening nature of the Whole as a specific structural synthesis of parts with inner activities of its own which co-operate and function in harmony, either naturally or instinctively or consciously. The parts so co-operate and co-function towards a definite inherent inner end or purpose that together they constitute and form a whole more or less of a distinctive character, with an identity and an ever-increasing measure of individuality of its own. The functioning of the parts is influenced by their place in the milieu of the other parts, and whole and parts thus reciprocally constitute and determine each other.

Holism as understood by Smuts and as I do in my argument for a natural morality should be understood as the idea that the sum of separate parts gives rise to a whole that has additional unique properties that the parts in themselves do not possess. For example, a car has a steering wheel, a windshield, a trunk lid, a shifter, and so on. These parts do not in themselves possess the property of auto-motion. All the parts put together give rise to a unique quality that gives the car its “carness.” This is the essence of holism, though this mechanical example is a limited one, as natural things cannot be taken apart and put back together again. We must conclude that the natural world is not machine-like in any way. This is a very important distinction to make. As machines would not necessarily require morality to function together. A machine is only good insofar as it is efficient and does not require notions of right, just, or good. Man, on the other hand, requires a system of ethics; he needs a compass to point him towards the good and away from the bad.

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