"Holism and Evolution" and a visit to Jan Smuts House

General Jan Christiaan Smuts was born on the 24th of May 1870 in what was then the Cape Colony. He is widely known for his role as South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader, philosopher and botanist. He was a lover of nature and animals.

He served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919-1924 and 1939 - 1948. He was one of the main architects of the League of Nations. In terms of political views, Smuts was an internationalist (not to be confused with being a globalist). He was all for the idea of international government and against totalitarianism. It has been said that Smuts initially advocated racial segregation, however, his views seemed to have changed. He was, after all, the leader of the United Party, which was in opposition to D.F. Malan's national party who officially implemented apartheid in South Africa in 1948.

In those days it was only the first son who would be allowed to go to school. With the passing of Smuts' older brother, he was allowed to attend school.

It was during Smuts' time as an undergraduate at Cambridge that he took an interest in the subject of Personality. He wrote a short study on "Walt Whitman: a Study in the Evolution of Personality". Smuts came to realise that personality was only one portion of a much more universal phenomenon - the existence of wholes and the tendency towards wholes and wholeness in nature.

Smuts: "In all the previous cases of wholes, we have nowhere been able to argue from the parts of the whole. Compared to its parts, the whole constituted by them is something quite different, something creatively new, as we have seen. Creative evolution synthesises from the parts a new entity not only different from them, but quite transcending them. That is the essence of a whole. It is always transcendent to its parts, and its character cannot be inferred from the characters of its parts."

Everywhere we look in nature, said the philosopher Jan Smuts, we see nothing but wholes. And not just simple wholes, but hierarchical ones: each whole is a part of a larger whole which is itself a part of a larger whole. Fields within fields within fields, stretching through the cosmos, interlacing each and every thing with each and every other.
Further, said Smuts, the universe is not a thoughtlessly static and inert whole—the cosmos is not lazy, but energetically dynamic and even creative. It tends (we would now say teleonomically, not teleologically) to produce higher- and higher-level wholes, ever more inclusive and organized. This overall cosmic process, as it unfolds in time, is nothing other than evolution. And the drive to ever-higher unities, Smuts called holism. - Ken Wilber. 1980. The Atman Project. Page 13.

He focused on matter, life and mind and how they are treated as and viewed separately:

Smuts: "The ideal of science is continuity, and its method is based on the analysis of things into more or less constant elements or parts, the sum of whose actions account for the behaviour of these things.

Things, thus become mechanisms of their parts; and the interactions of their invariable parts in a homogeneous time and space according to the rules of mechanics are sufficient to account for all their properties. This mechanistic scheme applies even to living bodies, as their material structures determine the functions which constitute life characters. Mind is similarly, though much more doubtfully, based on physical mechanisms and functions. Life and mind are thus considered as derivative and epiphenomenal to matter."

His philosophy has influenced the criticism of reductionism which can be explained broadly as trying to explain entire systems in terms of their individual, constituent parts and their interactions.

Basically, Smuts' philosophy advocates holistic thinking as opposed to thinking analytically.

This morning I got about a third of the way through Jan Smut's "Holism and Evolution" and then had a sudden itch to go and see the Jan Smuts House (now a museum). It was 10 am so I would still have enough time to get there (it's an hour from where I live) and spend some time exploring.

Took some pics along the way.
This is the old back road to Pretoria.
It's not easy to see, but within those dense trees are plots of land with houses. I grew up on one of those plots.
Some shacks / squatter camp

Entering Pretoria

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Some wildlife for you on the left. Spot the Ellie!

And I've arrived! Sadly one isn't allowed to take pics inside the house.

As I was paying the meager R30 entrance fee, I noticed an old man almost face down on his desk. He was dead still though so I started to think it was a wax figure of Jan Smuts over his desk but then I thought... surely they could've made him look a little more dignified and businesslike instead of having him slump over his desk. As I approached I realised it was a real old man. He was so still! I went back to reception to ask if the old man was okay and she replied: "Oh yes.. he's our guide. He just had a heart op, so he falls asleep a lot." Okay...

Off I go into the main living area (without a guide, but actually happier to explore on my own). There were two dining room tables, one for adults and one for kids. Smuts would sit at the head of the table with his back to the radio to listen to the news. A letter from a guest staying at the home is displayed and explains how noisy and messy the family were and how she couldn't understand why the family would choose to live in that tin house instead of the official residence for the Prime Minister. I could see why. The house has a definite feeling of home. You can tell a lot of happy memories were made within those walls. The adjoining room has bamboo curtain rods where Mrs Smuts, fondly referred to as "Ouma Issie" by South Africans) hid some of General Smuts' important documents when the British searched their home. The British never found them. The house is full of animal horns but these were gifts to Smuts and his family - he was not a hunter. The walls are lime green and I thought "Wow Issie, you really were an upbeat old lady". Turns out the walls had been painted after the house became a museum and they were actually dark green all those years ago. That's two "blonde" moments on my part within 10 minutes. Anyway, I wish I could've seen the house exactly was it was back then :(

I was the only person in the house until a man and what seemed to be his father walked in. We all just quietly shuffled about. Next was the back patio where Smuts often slept on a wrought iron bed out in the open. The architecture of the house is really interesting. I walked through the passage where Smuts kept some of the books he read. Books about ethnicity, travel, philosophy were on display. I stepped back into one of the guest rooms. It had the original quilts on the bed and the information sheet read that a ghost had been seen in that very room by Mrs Smuts and by a guest, on two separate occasions. I couldn't help but get the heebie jeebies and swiftly walked out and into the formal sitting room. Photographs with Smuts posing with various royal families are on display here. I noticed one where Princess Margaret was sitting in quite a chilled position next to her family. I just thought how strange that was because I don't think Queen Elizabeth would ever allow Katherine, for example, to sit like that. I wondered if the family were more chilled under King George VI rule and if Elizabeth made everything more "stiff" under her rule.

The old man (the visitor, not the sleepy tour guide) walked in and smiled. I shared my thoughts on the photograph. Then we somehow got onto the topic of how his wife was from Standerton and how my grandfather was born there. He asked what brought me to the house and I mentioned I was reading one of Smuts' books and got an itch to go see the house again. I moved along into the library / study and the old man's son pointed out the first edition of Holism and Evolution on display. I also saw the book on Walt Whitman. The old man's son said he was a history teacher, which I am too, so we got chatting about the pro's and con's of teaching and all that. Then the old man introduced himself as Henry and his son as John. Henry invited me to join them for tea outside later on.

I still had a lot of the house to see though. While I was in one of the children's rooms, the sleeping guide seemed to have risen from his slumber and insisted he give us a tour. He was still quite sleepy and he didn't always finish the ends of his sentences. He was sweet and harmless though and he did have some interesting pieces of information to share. However, it was all getting a bit much and sadly I just wanted to get out of that house. I swiftly looked at the kitchen, Issie's bedroom and the children's quarters.

(Source www.smutshouse.co.za)

John and Henry somehow slipped away. I envied them because sleepy guide was muttering incomprehensible sentences. Then the receptionist called me saying that Henry and John were waiting for me at the tea garden. I'm pretty sure sleepy guide needed to have a nap anyway.

Turns out that John is actually the headmaster of one of the prestigious schools in Pretoria. He will be writing his masters on aviation under the supervision of one of my old university professors. We spoke about Smuts, all his accomplishments, his great mind and foresight. John mentioned how he flies planes that he has built himself. I expressed my goal to one day learn to fly. He invited me to fly one of his planes and then Henry invited me to come and stay on his farm when I get back from Thailand in the New Year. They were very sweet and an unexpected element of my Jan Smuts outing. I doubt I'll take them up on their respective offers, but they were very kind nonetheless.

I leave you with one last quote from Smuts on holism: "(Holism is) the tendency in nature to form wholes that are greater than the sum of the parts through creative evolution".

That's all for now. Thanks for reading. Although, to be honest, sometimes I feel like I'm just typing into the abyss here.

Take care,
@lynb

"Holism and Evolution" - Jan Christiaan Smuts. Second Edition.

Wikipedia

www.guyduplessis.com