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each part only has meaning in relation to other parts, and ultimately in relation to the whole. However, in twentieth-century science the holistic perspective became known as ‘systematic’, and the way of thinking it implied as ‘ systems thinking ’ (sometimes called ‘network’ or ‘contextual’ thinking). Systems thinking concentrates not on individual building blocks, but on the principles of organization within a system. It therefore stresses the relationships within a system and the integration of its various elements within the whole. This is evident in the idea of an ecosystem, discussed earlier in the chapter. As an example of applied systems theory, a systems approach to medicine would consider not just physical ailments but would see these as a manifestation of imbalances within the patient as a whole, taking account of psychological, emotional, social and environmental factors. Those green thinkers who look tomodern science to provide a new paradigm for human thought typically emphasize the importance of twentieth-century developments in physics, particularly the emergence of the so-called ‘new physics’. The breakthrough moment in this process came in the early twentieth century when the German-born US physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955) advanced the theory of relativity. Moving significantly beyond the mechanistic and reductionist ideas of Newton, Einstein’s work, among other things, fundamentally challenged the traditional concepts of time and space by putting forward the notion of a time-space continuum. Such thinking was taken further by quantum theory, developed by physicists such as Niels Bohr
(1885–1952) and Verner Heisenberg (1901–76). In quantum theory the physical world is understood not as a collection of individual molecules, atoms or even particles, but as a system, or, more accurately, a network of systems. An alternative basis for systems thinking has been found in religion and ancientmyths. For example,many inthegreenmovement havebeenattracted by Eastern mysticism, seeing in it both a philosophy that gives expression to ecological wisdom and a way of life that encourages compassion for fellow human beings, other species and the natural world. Particular attention in this respect has focused on Hinduism, Daoism and Buddhism, in view of their stress on the unity or oneness of all things. Modern greens have, nevertheless, also looked back to pre-Christian spiritual ideas, especially the notion of an ‘Earth Mother’. Such thinking has been most influential when it has been advanced through what James Lovelock termed the Gaia hypothesis . Gaia is the name of the Greek goddess of the Earth. The basis
Systems thinking: A way of thinking that treats living systems as integrated wholes, in which, ultimately, there are no parts but only patterns in an inseparable web of relationships. System: A collection of parts that operate through a network of reciprocal interactions and thereby constitute a complex whole. Gaia hypothesis: The hypothesis that the Earth is best understood as a living entity, which acts, above all, to maintain its own existence.
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JAMES LOVELOCK (BORN 1919) A UK atmospheric chemist, inventor and environmental thinker, Lovelock is best known as the inventor of the ‘Gaia hypothesis’. This proposes that the Earth is best understood as a complex, self-regulating, living ‘being’, implying that the prospects for humankind are closely linked to whether the species helps to sustain, or threaten, the planetary ecosystem. Lovelock was also the first person to alert the world to the global presence of CFCs in the atmosphere, and he is, controversially, a supporter of nuclear power.
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