Perspectives: Holism and Nature's Interconnectedness

Holism is the best approach for ethical treatment of the environment. Holism considers human relationships with the environment in much the same way as nature is structured, interconnected with each part being dependant on all the other parts. Holism considers the health of the whole ecological community rather than its constituent parts. Holism is similar to the Gaia Hypothesis defined by James Lovelock. The Gaia hypothesis looks at Earth as one being and having the health of the whole dependent on the individual parts. Similarly, holism considers the interconnectedness of a whole and how different parts of a whole interact with and affect each other. While it may be very difficult to define what the whole is in many cases, considering the interconnected elements in an environment and how one action may affect other parts of the environment is extremely important to environmental health.  In addition, this ethical philosophy tends to support actions like hunting for their beneficial effects on the environment. Hunting helps to control animal populations so that the animals don’t harm other parts of their environment, die of disease or harm the ability of other animals to be successful. For example, each year in Minnesota, the Department of Natural Resources issues deer tags for a specific number of deer that can be taken in order to keep deer populations in check. In this way, the deer do not overgraze on tree saplings and kill all developing tree and do not outcompete themselves and other animals causing widespread death. This is an example of the benefits of holism; by considering how each part of the ecosystem interacts with other parts of the ecosystem, the best ethical action can be chosen by what decision will do little to no harm to other parts of the whole. In other traditions, like natural law, killing deer may be unacceptable because the deer are valued because they are fulfilling their natural function even though their actions may be harming other species of plants and animals. Holism, on the other hand, takes the rest of the environment into account in order to make the most ethical decisions regarding the environment and its constituent parts. Since ecosystems function as parts of a whole interacting and affecting one another, the best ethical approach to making environmental decisions thus must take into account this interconnected dimension of nature.