It is a theory that underlines the necessity to take into account a system as a whole (from the Greeck term “holos”) acknowledging its value of greater completeness and coherence with respect to the sum of its parts (components). A system should be therefore perceived globally and with its relationships with other systems.

The holistic method of thinking and acting underlines the necessity to have an open systemic view, taking into consideration complex interrelationships and avoiding a deterministic reductionism of complexity. The holistic method allows to understand and discover new leeway within the systems because of their self-reproducing and self-organising capacities through chains of relationships that transform their constitutive components (autopoiesis).