Abstract
The division into holistic and reductionistic methods of thinking and inquiry was present in all epochs and in all domains of intellectual activity, with the former usually having an aura of mystery. The paper is providing a short exposition of the presence of, and need for the holistic methods. An approach to information integration is presented within a general framework of information understood as identification of variety. An outline of the formalism of information integration in terms of closure spaces developed in earlier papers of the author for the study of consciousness is presented here for the more general purpose. This formalism can serve as a foundation for more general methodology for holistic description of a wide class of systems, which can be associated with information. Since the level of information integration can vary from total disintegration to complete integration with many degrees in between, the formalism shows that such methodology can combine the two formerly antagonistic approaches into one.
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Schroeder, M.J. (2012). The Role of Information Integration in Demystification of Holistic Methodology. In: Simeonov, P., Smith, L., Ehresmann, A. (eds) Integral Biomathics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28111-2_28
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