Towards cognitive holism in organic research

Summary

In the course of the close interplay between any scientific approach and its object, research has a modifying impact on the latter. The same is true for agriculture as scientific object. This is a particularly evident problem in organic farming, as the worldview of organic farming, arguments in marketing and farming practice seem to be in contrast to contemporary academic science which is, however, of great significance for organic research. Thus, organic research often appears to be carried out on the same theoretical basis which is opposed by organic practice and its ethical and philosophical backgrounds. At various levels, the apparent antagonism between holism and reductionism is part of this problem. This paper discusses whether holistic science is necessarily in contradiction to analytic and reductionist methods, or whether different scientific approaches could be brought together and linked in a cognitive process of building wholeness in thinking and imagination.