Benedikt's challenge: Reconstructing the whole from the parts

摘要

In systems theory, the mantra that 'the whole is more than the sum of its parts' has echoed down the years. The cliche seems to have originally been used by Aristotle, although the phrase that comes from his writings translates as 'the complete is more than the sum of its pieces'. In modern times, it first became significant in the work of the gestalt psychologists who argued that the true perception of reality was synergistic, composed of wholes. In fact, it was Koffka who said in the early 20th century that: 'The whole is other than the sum of its parts' but this was translated into English as 'the whole is greater than the sum of the parts'. Debate has raged ever since about whether the relation between wholes and parts should be 'more', or 'other', or 'different' or 'greater' but whatever term is used, there is something more than one sees in each of the parts that enters the form when the parts are assembled to produce the whole.