Holistician School of Thought

The Holisticians were one of principle schools of thought at the Rasian Academy, during the age of the Great Schools.

Holisticians view the universe as sets of interrelated and interdependent systems. They regard other perspectives as “reductionist”, and believe that only by perceiving the whole can the function and purpose of any parts of that system be truly understood. In practice, holisticians study life, encompassing ecological webs as well as the internal ecology of living beings, including the webs of social interactions in humans which make up families, communities and wider social, political and military networks.

At the crudest level of their field, holisticians are medics, and this is the field for which they are best known. However they not only treat symptoms, but promote health in relation to the well-being of whole living systems: humans, domestics animals and the food they consume, and their balance with the natural environment.

Holisticians also extend their study to include human societies, from the psyche of individuals to whole social and national movements.

According to the principles of the School, all holisiticians must have interdisciplinary expertise and a perspective in other fields. As such the Holisitician colleges are like shifting sands, which the more specialised Grammarians regard with horror as being “masters of none”. However, 'specialities' do exist, particularly from the perspective of the rest of the Academy:

Holistorians - study cycles in social history in comparison with the present day Herbalists - experts in botany and plantlife, particularly for healing purposes Diagnosticans - physicians