Explain how Aristotle’s statement “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, relates to the analysis of systems.
Explain how Aristotle’s statement “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, relates to the analysis of systems.
Ans.
The whole is equal to the sum of the parts.
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
These expressions represent two very different types of systems. When someone buys a newspaper at the corner drugstore, it has no effect on my decision to buy a tube of toothpaste at the supermarket. The two events are independent. The whole is equal to the sum of the parts.
If lots of people start buying various products then it may influence others to buy products. This reinforcing behaviour may create a boom in the economy. Conversely, if lots of people stop buying products then it may influence others to save, and thus create a recession. The actions by the individuals are dependent. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
Systems where the whole is equal to the sum of the parts are called linear systems. Each component is independent of the others.
Systems where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts are called non-linear systems. Each component may influence other components. A non-linear system is a vast web of incentives and constraints and connections. The slightest change in one part causes tremors everywhere else. “We can’t help but disturb the Universe”.
Today’s business world of a company is beyond the four walls of the organization. The vendors and the customers are being treated as trusted business partners of the organization. This change in the management philosophy calls for a change in the information management function in the organization. It cuts across all the facets of processing the data and the information, right from the input to the output and its distribution. The conventional confidential access to the information, and the practice of authorizing a person to make decisions has undergone a substantial change. The decision centers in the organization have been diffused and a substantial delegation of decision making has taken place at the lower level.
In today’s business environment, the ability to process information quickly and accurately is key to success. This process gives modern-day credence to the Aristotle quote, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. Analysis phase is integral to successfully analyzing the life cycle and each one poses potential challenges.
The ‘whole’ is composed of ‘parts’, all of which ‘parts’ combine together to make up the ‘whole’.
The common understanding is that when ‘whole’ of something is referred, like a car, it automatically encompasses the idea that the ‘whole’, the car, is composed of ‘parts’. In other words, a bunch of ‘parts’ working together is what makes up the ‘whole.’
Another way of saying this is that the ‘whole’ car is a combination of many ‘parts,’ with things like the carburetor, the fuel pump, the steering wheel, the seats, the motor, and so on being the ‘parts’ which work or function or interrelate together to make up the car which you drive in. One cannot take a drive somewhere with just one or a few ‘parts’ of the car, but one can drive somewhere in the whole’ car.
Parts’ have functions…so, the function of the ‘whole’ results from the combination of the functions of the ‘parts’. In other words, the ‘parts’ aren’t just put together haphazardly. Each part in and of itself has its own function, and it is the unique combination of the functions of the parts which, in turn, creates an altogether new function that did not exist before the parts were put together, that new function being that of the ‘whole’. Actually, ‘organized systems’, wherein functions of parts interrelate together to form new functions, encompass the structure and workings of almost everything in the system.
In other words, everything in the universe is, at one level or another, nothing but a ‘part’ of a ‘whole’, while at the same time at another level it is also a ‘whole’ composed of its own multiple ‘parts.
