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About this quote

What does it mean?
Nature has a tendency to create unified wholes through creative evolution that are more than just the sum of parts.
In plain terms
Nature evolves to form unified wholes that exceed the sum of their parts.
What can you take from it?
Look for emergent properties when observing complex systems in nature.

Where it applies

  • scientific study
  • biological analysis
  • systems thinking

Putting it to work

  • systems design
  • ecosystem management
  • research methodology

Questions to consider

  • What makes a whole greater than its parts?
  • How does this view shape your approach to science?

Another view

Framing evolution as 'creative' may imply teleology where none exists.

More from Jan Christiaan Smuts

  1. In all the previous cases of wholes, we have nowhere been able to argue from the parts of the whole. Compared to its parts, the whole constituted by them is so…

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  2. Having no human companion I felt a spirit of comradeship for the objects of nature around me. In my childish way I communed with these as with my own soul; the…

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  3. The intimate rapport with nature is one of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed very close to us; sometimes closer than hands and feet, of which …

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