Holism and Evolution [Hardcover]

Jan Christiaan Smuts (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0837165563 | ISBN-13: 978-0837165561 | Publication Date: July 25, 1973 | Edition: New edition

This book is a facsimile reprint and may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“General Smuts has written a book which is fresh in thought and vigorous in style and which deserves far higher praise than the lukewarm succes d'estime that is generally meted out by professionals to the work of distinguished outsiders.”–New Republic

Product Details

• Hardcover: 361 pages
• Publisher: Greenwood Press Reprint; New edition edition (July 25, 1973)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0837165563
• ISBN-13: 978-0837165561
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,290,585 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is one of the major seminal books of our century., November 6, 1998

By 

Dr. Ross Lee Graham (Linköping Sweden) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Holism and Evolution (Hardcover)

The maverick genius, Jan Christian Smuts (1870--1950)invented the words 'holism' and 'holistic' in his book, Holism and Evolution, which stresses the importance of structure and function in holistic reference-frames. The first half of the book is brilliant. He discourses on how losses obtain from analysis and how gains obtain from holistic views. Function is put as an emergent quality, a something more than a mere sum of its parts. The ideas expressed in this book had great influence on the research methods and expositions in biology and medicine and have since extended to all systems studies. From the less edited second half of his book it becomes clear that he decided to publish before he finished the editing he had so carefully begun. It merits five stars for its vast range of applications in systemic reasoning.