ABSTRACT
The term ‘holism’ implies both an opposition to atomism, alongside the notion that particular elements cannot be fully understood independently from the universal dimension of the whole. Ian Hornsby sets out to construct a Critical Realist framework, taken from the early writings of Roy Bhaskar, as a philosophical strategy for investigating holism in the writings of both Gilles Deleuze and Jung.
The construction of bronze, from the forging together of tin and copper, has been used as a metaphor through which to observe holism as a form of emergence. Evident in Deleuze’s collaboration with Félix Guattari is the manner in which their writing points to the emergent properties within art as containing the ability to reterritorialize our relations with the world. A form of emergence can also be seen in Jung’s writings on the formation of the Transcendent Function, ‘which creates a transition from one attitude to another’ as the engine of individuation, where a third thing emerges from this process.
Using sections of sequential art to help elucidate particular ideas from Critical Realism, Hornsby addresses themes of emergence as these relate to our comprehension of what the world must be like for our understanding of it to make sense.
