“There is a strong current in contemporary culture advocating ' holistic ' views as some sort of cure-all... Reductionism implies attention to a lower level while holistic implies attention to higher level. These are intertwined in any satisfactory description: and each entails some loss relative to our cognitive preferences, as well as some gain... there is no whole system without an interconnection of its parts and there is no whole system without an environment.” WellsWholeCultureStrongLossLevelsViewsAttentionEnvironmentHigherGainsCurrentsContemporaryCuresDescriptionRelativePreferenceCognitiveHigher LevelHolisticAdvocatingIntertwinedInterconnectionReductionism Author:Francisco Varela
“I am never much interested in the effects of what I write....I seldom read with any attention the reviews of my...books. Two times out of three I know something about the reviewer, and in very few cases have I any respect for his judgments. Thus his praise, if he praises me, leaves me unmoved. I can't recall any review that has even influenced me in the slightest. I live in sort of a vacuum, and I suspect that most other writers do, too. It is hard to imagine one of the great ones paying any serious attention to contemporary opinion.” IfsKnowsWritingI CanTwoBookHardThreeAttentionOpinionCasesImagineEffectsSeriousJudgmentPraiseContemporarySuspectsReviewsRecallsLeaving MeVacuumsGreat OnesReviewers Author:H. L. Mencken