Christoper Alexander – What is Wholeness?

“How can we tackle the task of making good sense of this intuition of unity and wholeness?

First, wholeness is a structure, and can be understood as such …

Second, the thing we call wholeness –  the feeling, or the intuition, of what the wholeness is – always extends beyond the thing in question …

Third … somehow, any wholeness we want to poin to, or think about, seems to elude comprehension … words and concepts almost always fail to encompass if perfectly …

Fourth, there is too, the presence of unity … It is, also, somehow, at peace … it is exactly what it is, and nothing else.

Fifth, each wholeness contains and is composed of myriad other wholes …

Sixth, and finally, the idea of wholeness encompasses the idea of healing. When something is whole we consider it healed … Healing is making whole.”

Christopher Alexander – The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth