Whole: Something that has parts and behaves as a unit.
There seem to be two basic kinds of wholes: Such as behave as a
unit because they physically cohere, and such as behave as a unit
because their parts interact systematically and collectively behave as
and within the unit they are part of.
This roughly distinguishes coherent
inanimate things, that e.g. move as a whole if one of their parts is
moved, and animated things, that are made up of cooperating parts whose
actions interdepend.
One way in which actions interdepend is
that one part (bone-marrow) of something (a human being) may produce and
emit parts (red bloodcells), often called output(s), that enter
into other parts (blood-vessels), in which they are often said to be
input(s), that again contribute to the first part (to keep the
bone-marrow working); briefer and to the same effect: if the actions of
one part are required or inhibitory for actions of another part.
|
