Whole and Part

Also known as “global and partial”. A widely used pair of categories of dialectics. The whole refers to the organic unity of several objects (or several components of a single object) in accordance with a certain structural form; the part refers to the individual objects in relation to such a whole. The existence of the whole and the parts mutually condition each other. The whole is constituted by the parts, without the parts there would be no whole; the whole conditions the parts, without the whole there would be no parts. The whole and the parts can transform into each other under certain conditions. Under certain conditions, a part of the whole is separated from the original whole and becomes an independent whole, and in all kinds of dissolution, differentiation, separation, and disintegration of things, there is a process of transformation of a part into the whole; the whole becomes one of the parts in a larger whole, and all kinds of fusion, merger, and integration include the process of transformation of the whole into a part. The function of the whole is not necessarily equal to the sum of the functions of its parts. Aristotle once put forth the famous proposition that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. The relation between the function of the whole and the sum of the functions of the parts depends on the concrete situation. The whole can have functions that the parts do not have at all. The function of the whole may be greater than the sum of the functions of the parts, or it may be shorter than the sum of the functions of the parts.

It is of great methodological significance to correctly grasp the relation between whole and the parts. The dialectical relation between the whole and the parts is the philosophical basis of the method of thinking of the unity of synthesis and analysis. Men’s knowledge of things is developed in a cycle repeating itself from the parts to the whole and from the whole to the parts, and in the mutual transformation of synthesis and analysis. In practice, attention should be paid to the adjustment of the relation between the parts, and even more attention should be paid to the study and grasp of those parts that are of decisive significance for the whole. “One careless move loses the whole game” refers to a move affecting the situation as a whole, a move of decisive significance for the whole situation. This view is of universal significance to people’s work and life.