Abstract

The concepts of holism and reductionism are always debated in the sociological discussions and at times have played very important role in the progress of sociological theory. But unfortunately scientists as of now have not used them in an unambiguous and in absolute coherent way. Instead they have used it to cover a mass of somewhat interrelated but partially different phenomena within sociological theory (Willy Ostreng, n.d.). This article is an effort to reduce this conceptual confusion by exploring and illuminating some of the different ways in which the terms holism and reductionism are used in selected sociological theories. In sociological theories holism is studied in whole and not in parts whereas reductionism emphasizes on the classical Newtonian assumption that says the dynamics of any intricate system can be understood from studying the properties of its parts. Holism has plenty of application in the areas of marketing, medicine and healthcare, agricultural research, and Architecture. Reductionism has plenty of applications in the areas of applied science, physic chemistry and molecular biology.

Key words: Holism, Reductionism, Sociological, Feasibility, Ontological, Philosophical.