Does thinking holistically mean considering the whole system instead of each part or considering how each part relates to the rest of the part in a system?

Question

Does thinking holistically mean considering the whole system instead of each part or considering how each part relates to the rest of the part in a system?

Answer 1

Holistic thinking looks at the system as a whole, where the whole is more than the sum of its parts.  The system as a whole determines how its parts behave.  It looks like the first half of your statement is closer to what is meant by holistic thinking.  In the technical disciplines, we call it the systems approach or systems engineering.