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1.2 L'adolescence
Aprs le dcs de son frre an Michiel des complications de la typhode, il entreprit des tudes de thologie
l'ge de douze ans. Malgr une excessive timidit, ce travailleur acharn, obsd par ses tudes[6] , rattrapa puis
dpassa ses condisciples et obtint d'entrer au prestigieux
collge de Victoria Stellenbosch. la frquentation
des puerile element [7] , il prfrait les longues promenades
dans la nature, les oces du dimanche et la tenue d'une
classe d'tude de la bible pour garons noirs. lve assidu, brillant, tortur par le sens moral et le sens du devoir,
il fut diplm, avec mention, en sciences et en littrature
(thologie, grec ancien et allemand) l'ge de 21 ans et
obtint une bourse pour tudier le droit au Christs College
de l'Universit de Cambridge en Angleterre.
Les inuences majeures de sa jeunesse : sa foi protestante, les principes moraux de sa culture afrikaner, son
got pour la philosophie, les sciences et son amour de la
nature[2] l'ont aussi inuenc dans sa description d'un univers holistique.
2 RSUM
Afrique du Sud.
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2.1
Sommaire
En se fondant sur les constructions thoriques des chapitres prcdents, il tudie les consquences de son
concept sur les principaux courants pistmologiques de
la premire moiti du XXe sicle :
1. Mechanism and Holism
2. Darwinism and Holism
ce point, il poursuivra sa gnalogie des wholes (des
touts ) ; ce dveloppement et cette stratication graduels de sries progressives de totalits (les wholes ),
qui stirent depuis les commencements inorganiques jusqu'aux niveaux les plus levs de la cration spirituelle.
Il stait arrt, au chapitre 4, au whole organisme
ls du whole de la cellule, lui-mme engendr par le
whole de la matire brute. Maintenant, il montre comment le whole organisme gnre le whole esprit ;
Lui-mme l'origine du whole personnalit :
1. Mind as an Organ of Wholes
2. Personality as a Whole
L'avant-dernier chapitre expose ses ides sur le whole
personnalit, degr ultime au sein de la gnalogie des
whole pour l'univers physique.
1. Some Functions and Ideals of Personality
Il conclut son ouvrage sur sa conception d'un univers holistique :
1. The Holistic Universe
Dnition de wholes par Smuts
In all the previous cases of wholes, we have nowhere
been able to argue from the parts of the whole. Compared to its parts, the whole constituted by them is something quite dierent, something creatively new, as we
have seen. Creative evolution synthesises from the parts a
new entity not only dierent from them, but quite transcending them. That is the essence of a whole. It is always
transcendent to its parts, and its character cannot be inferred from the characters of its parts[10] . Un whole[11]
(un tout) dans le sens holistique du terme un ensemble
organis, plus ou moins autonome, qui prsentent des proprits mergentes.
3
Dnition de holisme par Smuts
the tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater
than the sum of the parts through creative evolution[10]
- la tendance dans la nature constituer des ensembles
qui sont suprieurs la somme de leurs parties, au travers
de (ou durant ?) l'volution cratrice .
2.2
Notes et rfrences
[1] Hancock, sem. et van der Poel, J (eds) - choix partir des
papiers de Smuts, 1886-1950, (7 vols), (1966-73)
[2] The intimate rapport with nature is one of the most precious things in life. Nature is indeed very close to us ; sometimes closer than hands and feet, of which in truth she is
but the extension. The emotional appeal of nature is tremendous, sometimes almost more than one can bear.
Smuts, Jan. Holism and Evolution. Londres : Macmillan
& Co Ldt, 1926, 362 p.
[3] l'age de 32 ans, il crit : How well I remember the
years I spent tending the cattle on the large farm, roaming
over all its far expanse of veld, in which every kloof, every
valley, every koppie was endeared to me by the most familiar associations. Month after month I had spent there
in lonely occupationalone with the cattle, myself and
God. The veld had grown part of me, not only in the sense
that my bones were a part of it, but in that more vital
sense which identies nature with man ... Having no human companion, I felt a spirit of comradeship for the objects around me. In my childish way I communed with
these as with my own soul ; they became the sharers of my
condence. in J. C. Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p.12.
[4] Un biographe attache ensemble sa vision politique de
grande envergure et sa philosophie technique : F. S. Crafford, Jan Smuts : A Biography, (1943)
[5] Having no human companion I felt a spirit of comradeship for the objects of nature around me. In my childish
way I communed with these as with my own soul ; they
became the sharers of my condence. in Smuts, Jan. Holism and Evolution. Londres : Macmillan & Co Ldt, 1926,
362 p.
[6] Hancock, WK and van der Poel, J (eds) - Selections from
the Smuts Papers, 1886-1950, (7 vols), (1966-73)
[7] ... such a place, where a large puerile element exists,
aords fair scope for moral, and what is more important,
religious temptation, which, if yielded to will eclipse alike
the expectations of my parents and the intentions of myself ... for of what use will a mind, enlarged and rened
in all possible ways, be to me, if my religion be a deserted pilot and morality a wreck ? Smuts to C Murray,
12 June 1886, Selections from the Smuts Papers (hereafter
SP) vol.1, p.4
[8] I do not like your people and I do not care to assist
them at all. But what am I to do ? You help us in our days
of need. How can we lay hands upon you ? I often wish
you took to violence like the English strikers and then
we would know at once how to dispose of you. But you
will not injure even the enemy. You desire victory by selfsuering alone and never transgress your self-imposed limits of courtesy and chivalry. And that is what reduces
us to sheer helplessness in F. S. Craord, Jan Smuts : A
Biography, (1943)
[9] It had very much in common with his philosophy of life
as subsequently developed and embodied in his Holism
and Evolution. Small units must needs develop into bigger wholes, and they in their turn again must grow into larger and ever-larger structures without cessation. Advancement lay along that path. Thus the unication of the four
provinces in the Union of South Africa, the idea of the
British Commonwealth of Nations, and, nally, the great
whole resulting from the combination of the peoples of
the earth in a great league of nations were but a logical
progression consistent with his philosophical tenets. in
F. S. raord, Jan Smuts : A Biography, (1943), p. 140
[10] Smuts, Jan. Holism and Evolution. Londres : Macmillan &
Co Ldt, 1926, 362 p.
[11] De l'anglais whole : a thing that is complete in itself ; all
of something, o l'on retrouve la racine heal, soigner dans
le sens de rendre entier .
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