William J. Hobler, Jr wrote a very clear, and I think, logical peice on
the relationship between systemic thinking and reductionist thinking.
I'd add, to this thread, that the likelyhood that anyone ever sees the
_entire system_ is fairly low, and therefore, even when we think
systemically or holistically, we're still only thinking about part of the
system.
This does not inhibit our ability to take effective action on the
knowledge we do have. As we constantly explore the system, and attempt to
change it, our understanding of it will expand.
Nonetheless, it is impossible, IMHO, to view a system at any given moment:
Systems are constantly evolving (at least that's my theory), making it
impossible to see the whole system at any present or future time.
--Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>