Thoughts to you from yours truly - ( 64 ) - March, 13, 2011

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 64 ) - Reductionist vs. Holistic Approach ( 歸納法和整體觀 ) - March 13, 2011

Behind all the monumental achievements of modern science and technology ( of course with the related threats to human lives and our environment as well ) there lies a very powerful tool in problem solving used since the birth of modern science in the Sixteenth Century at the times of Galileo, Newton and Descartes. This approach in problem solving is called the reductionist method whereby complicated things or problems are broken down into smaller individual parts. Then, we study how each small part works and put them back together again to understand the overall mode of operation. This method is so successful that most if not all scientists follow this method to the present day.
在我們現有空前成功的科技背面，是存在着一種十分強有力的工具。它便是起源於十六世紀，加里略，牛頓和狄格司等人那時代的，新科學紀元開始使用， 來解決問題的歸納法。這個方法，是將複雜的事物，化整為零，將每個小部分加以分析，了解它的操作情況，然後把它們整合起來，以確定整體的操作程式。由於這 方法極度成功，所以到了今天，絕大科學家都仍然樂於用它。


Then, the biological sciences including genetic and neuro sciences and most importantly the behavioural sciences come on the scene and scientists are greatly puzzled at the apparent failure of the reductionist approach to solve the important problems such as the causes of cancer and investor behaviour. Finally, some philosophers ( many of whom are scientists ) studying the working principles of the scientific method come up with an explanation. Among them the Nobel Laureate, Ilya Prigogine ( who is awarded the Nobel Prize for his profound discovery of complexity and the emergence of life ) discovers that in most bio-systems there are multi-feedback loops meaning individual factors in a system do not affect the system in one way traffic. The factors, in fact, interacts with one another in endless interactive-cycles to create endless ripple effects. In short, one plus one can be more than two. This is easily seen in the economy ( a social system ) as the " Multiplier Effect " that will give rise to vicious cycles making the end result much greater than the initial input such as an increase in consumer spending. To understand the multilateral interactions properly a holistic approach must be adopted. As opposed to the reductionist method, the holistic approach looks at the system as a whole to understand how the related parts interact with one another.
到了生物學和社會科學的面世，包括遺傳學, 神經系統研究，以及行為科學等更複雜的範疇要處理，歸納法便難以應付。科學家們感到十分困惑，為什麼這一向效的工具，不 能解釋有如投資者心態，以及癌症起因等問題呢。最後，一些科學上的哲學家，提出了答案。包括 諾貝爾獎得主柏力高堅( Ilya Prigogine )等人，提出了在複雜的生物學系統中，會出現很多相對互動的因素，影響不是單方面的，導致複雜和不可預料的結果，一加一是可以多於二的通常結果。 Prigogine 的得獎理論，是解釋生命是可能由複雜互動系統中演變出來的。生命的真正來源，到今天仍是神秘的謎。他的理論指出，相向互動的因素，會產生無止境的波浪效 應，互相影響，結果難測。就有如經濟學上的倍數效應( Multiplier Effect )，一些少量的消費可以造成大於原本數目的消費總和。要了解複雜的互動因素，我們必須以整體觀來分析這些因素，注意整體的效應，而不是個別因素的簡單總 和。

This is not new at all. It can be traced back some 5,000 years to the Chinese tradition and theories of the great philosophy book the famous I-Ching. We have heard so much about the great human genome project that has decoded the entire human genome of over 100,000 pairs of human genes. At first, scientists think we can proceed to discover all the genetic causes of all human diseases. Hold your horses because it is not that easy ! The reason is simple. While it has been discovered that the defects in certain genes are related to some diseases the combined effects of other genes have been found to counteract some defects to prevent occurrence of the related diseases. There is just no definite one to one relation. Therefore, the overall perspective has once again proven to be crucial.
整體觀並不是新概念，我們可以將它追索到五千年前中國的易經裡面。我們聽說很多有關人類基因的分析計劃， 科學家把整個人類的超過十萬對基因排列出來了。起初，科學家雀躍不已，認為可以很快尋找出，所有疾病的基因來源。可惜這只是空歡喜一場，因為事情並沒有這 般簡單。他們雖然尋找出一些基因與某些疾病的聯繫性，但他們亦發現有其他基因，會作出對抗性的均衡作用，抵消了這些壞基因的影響，甚而數個基因互相控制一些病 因。結論是，一對一的關係，並不存在。這一再證明整體觀的重要性。


For example, while western medicine is effective in dealing with emergency medical conditions by surgery and radiation treatment Chinese medicine is more suited to treating long term ailments like rheumatism through the strengthening of the immunity system by the use of herbal medicine and acupuncture. The former directly attacks the part of the body where the trouble appears while the latter takes a wider perspective or holistic approach of treating the whole immune system. Western and oriental medicines were once seen as mutually exclusive but nowadays both are adopting the strength of the other. Western medicine has used acupuncture as alternative medicine while Chinese medicine has also adopted the scientific approach of quantifying the potency of herbal medicine. That is a very good sign as there is no single golden rule that can cure everything. We should adopt the same attitude to become smart thinkers.
再拿一個例子來說，西方醫學對緊急醫學情況，是特別有效的。它可以用外科手術和放射性治療，對付癌症和緊急症狀，但對於長期疾病，如風濕等，便不及中醫的治本了，中醫以草藥和針灸，給予徹底醫理。西方醫學，對點治療，但比不上中醫的針對免疫系統，固本培源， 那般轍底。從 前，中西醫學是被視為兩不相容的。到了現在，西方醫學，已開始使用，針灸等中醫療法，稱之另類療法。中醫也進行中藥科學化，以確定它的準確藥力。這都是十 分令人鼓勵的發展。解決事情，沒有唯一的金科玉律，以適當的方法，處理合適的難題，不管它是歸納法或整體觀也好，適當地使用便行。這樣，我們便可擁有醒目 的思維了。

( Note : Please see my other blog entry about - " The Three World We Experience " here :- http://jkhcforum.blogspot.com/2011/03/thoughts-to-you-from-yours-truly-61.html )
（ 有關我們體驗的三個不同世界和適用的分析原則，請參考我這BLOG 部落格:- http://jkhcforum.blogspot.com/2011/03/thoughts-to-you-from-yours-truly-61.html )



JKHC ( 鄭冠合 )