¶ Synergy
Index Entry
Q. “The only other word I am interested in right now is holism. I think J.C. Sm?ts may have coined it. I know he wrote the book ‘Holism and Evolution.’ How does the concept of holism compare with your concept of synergy?”
RBF: “My word synergy has really a very specific meaning. Synergy means behaviors of wholes, whole systems unpredicted by behaviors of any of the system’s components considered separately–which is the same as the mind; the mind is always synergetic. There are relationships existing between but not of any of the special cases considered by themselves; so there is always a relationship. The word holistic is not necessarily that: it can mean all the parts without any of the behavior between them. Say you have a holistic human body and there it is–but life is not there. So I try to avoid that word.”
