noun. The theory that living matter or reality is made up of organic or unified wholes that are greater than the simple sum of their parts.

noun. A holistic investigation or system of treatment.

noun. A theory or belief that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

noun. A practice based on such theory or belief.

noun. the theory that the parts of any whole cannot exist and cannot be understood except in their relation to the whole

"In nature life and death occur all the time and often as not there's nothing needful about death; that sort of "circle of life" holism is strictly Disney stuff."

reductionism  

holist  holistic  

theory  

Zeitgeist  atomism  cineplex  collectivism  communalism