ABSTRACT
There are two ways of understanding the world: analysis and synthesis. The process of analysis examines the different parts of something. After analysing something into its separate ‘bits,’ the whole is found by adding the separate bits together to make a whole. In the physical sciences this often involves micro-analysis. The process synthesis shows how the different parts of something interact and combine such that the whole cannot be understood by the separate contributions of the individual parts. Throughout the history of science, and in several different disciplines, there is a tension between those who want to analyse yet smaller and smaller parts of the jigsaw that is knowledge, and those who want to see the meaning of the jigsaw as a whole. The brick wall versus coalescence controversy was a debate amongst philosophers in the 19th century, and it is a precursor to a much more important movement in psychology, the gestalt movement.
