Annual Philosophy Lecture 2025 | Holism | Thomas O. Scarborough

The Subject of our Annual Philosophy Lecture

In our 2025 Annual Philosophy Lecture, Thomas O. Scarborough presents a two-part lecture on . The first part develops a concept of the whole. The second part considers how this applies to various aspects of our modern existence. Dictionary definitions of the whole tend to focus on wholes which have parts. For instance, an engine is a whole; so is a molecule, or an ecosystem. Each, too, has parts. Yet there is another kind of whole, oft neglected. The whole that Scarborough presents has its roots in the ancients. 

Imagine that a scientist writes a symbol on a blackboard. She calls it “x”, and defines it. Suppose now that everything outside x is unnamed and undefined. Now consider something more complex than x. Say, GMm/r². Everything outside G, M, m, and r is now unnamed and undefined. We may expand on this at will.