Table Of ContentHOLISM AND THE UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE
‘This book addresses issues which are central in the philosophy of science, exploring
a large and relevant literature. It should be of broad interest in the philosophy of
science community.’
-Professor Peter Lipton, Department of History and Philosophy of Science,
University of Cambridge, UK
How can the complexities of understanding science be dealt with as a whole? Is
philosophical realism still a defensible philosophical position? Exploring such
fundamental questions, this book claims that science ought to be understood in
terms of universal practices and that such an understanding supports an attractive
version of scientific realism. Holism is attracting renewed scholarly attention but is
still loosely used in a range of different contexts, from semantics to medicine. This
book presents a detailed philosophical analysis of holism, concentrating on two
complementary aspects of holism - cognitive and social - to investigate its relevance
to science studies. Bridging the gap between analytical, historical and sociological
accounts of science, Caruana draws together results from recent research by Davidson,
Dummett, Quine, Wright and others, on Wittgenstein’s later philosophy.
Demonstrating that holism, both cognitive and social, is not only essential for a full
understanding of science but also compatible with a particular version of scientific
realism, this book presents important new perspectives for the philosophers of science
and scholars of the history of science in particular.
Louis Caruana is Assistant Lecturer in Philosophy of Science and Nature at the
Gregorian University, Rome, Italy.
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Holism and the
Understanding of Science
Integrating the analytical, historical
and sociological
LOUIS CARUANA
First published 2000 by Ashgate Publishing
Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright © Louis Caruana 2000
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Contents
Preface vii
1. The Task Ahead 1
2. Cognitive Holism 11
1. Ways of Understanding Holism 13
2. The All-or-Nothing Problem 24
3. Minimal Cognitive Holism 31
3. Social Holism 42
1. Using Words 43
2. Following Rules 46
3. Group Belief 55
4. Discourse and Practice 66
1. The Notion of Discourse 67
2. The Notion of Practice 74
5. The Case of Science 91
1. Practices, Interests and Purposes 92
2. Constraints on Scientific Discourse 108
3. Experimentation and the Link to Rudimentary Actions 111
6. Common Practice 118
1. Common Practice as Universal 118
2. Common Practice Situated between Biology and Culture 124
7. Constraints and Objectivity 130
1. Preliminary Ideas about Constraints 130
2. Refinement of the Idea of Constraint 132
3. Objectivity 139
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vi Holism and the Understanding of Science
8. Scientific Objectivity and Realism 149
1. The Objectivity of Scientific Practice 152
2. The Original Task 159
Bibliography 161
Index 169
Preface
This book is about ways of dealing with the complexity one faces when trying to
understand science as a whole. In general, when giving an account of something, we
tend to simplify our work by identifying the diverse constituent aspects which seem to
us to call for explanation. This strategy, however, may result in the systematic neglect
of some important aspects which are only perceptible when the thing is taken as a
whole. As regards science, various attempts have been made to understand it through
a philosophical analysis of theoretical terms, or of equations, or theories. Such
understanding in terms of apparently isolated units, however, does not do justice to
the fact that we can fully understand these very units only in so far as they form part of
the entire structure of science, taken both in its theoretical and practical dimensions.
Such interaction between the whole and the constituent parts is often referred to by
the term ‘holism’. Given that there is no clear consensus as to the meaning of this
term, I consecrate the first half of this book to a detailed investigation of holism when
used specifically to refer to the complexity of science. The basic insight here is that, in
science, we have an inevitable interaction not only between one thought and another,
but also between one inquirer and another. In the second half of the book, I present
one possible way of taking holism seriously in our understanding of science. This part
of the book makes no pretension to be, even approximately, a complete treatment of
the way holism could be integrated into a proper account of science. In spite of this
lack of completeness, however, I hope that the work presented here will be useful not
only for those wishing to clarify the meaning of holism, but also for those who think
that a holistic approach to science undermines scientific realism. For the benefit of the
latter, I make a special effort to situate the entire discussion within the framework of
arguments for and against realism. An essential part of the purpose of this book is to
show that scientific realism is still a defensible philosophical position even when a
deliberate and serious attempt is made to understand science in all its complexity.
The project began as a Ph.D. thesis at the Department of History and Philosophy
of Science, Cambridge University. Thanks are due to friends and colleagues who have
generously read parts of the book and have given their advice. For such assistance, I
am particularly indebted to Professor Nicholas Jardine, Professor Peter Lipton, and
Dr. William Newton-Smith. I learned much from formal and informal discussions at
the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, and also from the Tuesday
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viii Holism and the Understanding of Science
meetings of the Moral Science Club, attended by many members of the Faculty of
Philosophy. Thanks are due also to St. Edmund’s College for accommodation and
a friendly atmosphere during the early stages of my work. For the funding which made
this research possible, I am grateful to the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome,
and to the Society of Jesus.
Chapter One
The Task Ahead
Holism is a broad philosophical position that has had applications in a vast number
of research fields including such diverse areas as semantics, quantum mechanics
and medicine. It can be described in general terms by the well-known assertion that
certain wholes are greater than the sum of their parts. Since this description leaves a
lot to be desired as regards precision, various philosophical studies in the course of
history have been dedicated to clarifying the essential claims of holism in one way
or another.1 It seems undeniable that some composites are not just a collection of
independent members, but seem to have an internal organisation that gives the
composite something more than can be given by the sum of its parts. A living cell is
quite different from a heap of sand. An essential claim of holism is that, on the
basis of this observation, one should not engage in an investigation in a way that
concentrates exclusively on small units with no reference whatsoever to the wholes
they may be part of. Taking holism seriously means accepting that any one entity,
even if it is a thought, a hypothesis, a theory, or an inquirer, should not be
considered in isolation without any reference to the whole it may form part of. One
needs to take into consideration its relation to other parts that make up the whole.
This attitude, resulting from the claim that some holistic systems do exist, is
opposed to the attitude usually associated with the empirical method, in as much as
this method, favouring analysis, is limited to consider wholes as simple aggregates
of their parts. When one accepts that the object of an investigation is a part of a
holistic composite, one needs to allow for the fact that the properties of such a part
are determined to some extent by the relations it bears to other parts and to the
whole composite itself. In this case, a systematic neglect of such relations will lead
to an investigation that will be at best incomplete, or at worst incorrect.
To avoid such deformities in our understanding, therefore, one must ensure that
the central working concepts employed at the very start of any investigation do not
bring in with them a hidden assumption that the system one is dealing with is not 1
1 For a survey of the historical roots and broad application of this philosophical position,
three useful works are: D. Lemer, (ed.), Parts and Wholes; D.C. Phillips, Holistic Thought
in Social Science; C. Lawrence and G. Weisz (eds.), Greater than the Parts: Holism in
Biomedicine 1920-1950.
