In slogan form, holism is the thesis that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Explanatory holism is the view that a satisfactory explanation of the behavior of a system cannot be given by explaining the behavior of its parts. Property holism is the view that the properties of a whole are not wholly determined by those of its parts. Ontological holism denies that some supposedly composite object has (proper) parts. Quantum phenomena exhibit holism of at least the first two kinds.
Quantum mechanics is often applied to a system as a whole, even though it is known to be composed of many subsystems. Such applications supply many instances of explanatory holism. Interference has been experimentally demonstrated between beams of sodium atoms and of fullerenes (C60 molecules ► mesoscopic quantum phenomena) [11]. The result of these experiments is readily explained by direct application of quantum mechanics to such composite objects. It would be futile to try to explain their behavior by applying quantum mechanics to their quark and lepton components. Many phenomena in condensed matter physics are explained by applying quantum mechanics directly to systems composed of very large numbers of atomic or subatomic particles: only in special cases can the theory be applied at the level of these components [9].
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Healey, R. (2009). Holism in Quantum Mechanics. In: Greenberger, D., Hentschel, K., Weinert, F. (eds) Compendium of Quantum Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70626-7_91
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