Organicism

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Is it material composition, or organization of parts, that creates the mutual symbiosis between Amphiprion clownfish and tropical sea anemones?

Organicism is a philosophical orientation that asserts that reality is best understood as an organic whole. By definition it is close to holism. Benedict Spinoza and Constantin Brunner are two philosophers whose thought is best understood as organicist.

Organicism is also a biological doctrine that stresses the organization, rather than the composition, of organisms. William Emerson Ritter coined the term in 1919. Organicism became well-accepted in the 20th century.

[edit] References

• Mayr, E. (1997). The organicists. In What is the meaning of life. In This is biology. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

• Gilbert, Scott F. and Sahotra Sarkar (2000): “Embracing complexity: Organicism for the 21st Century”, Developmental Dynamics 219(1): 1-9. (abstract of the paper: [1])

[edit] External links

• from History of Ideas
• Dictionary definition

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