Conceptualizing and Models (1972)

When we may learn best by first having a knowledge of the whole, in practice, the existence of this knowledge depends upon the experiences of others who have been able – sometimes over many generations – to build up a total picture from their knowledge of parts and the relations of parts. A map is drawn by exploration of parts. The parts come first. This is the practical means of discovery. Similarly, in exploring human behaviourHuman behaviour we, as persons, commence with the immediate social unit, and only later do we explore the interactions within and between larger societies. We discover relationships first within the family, then the kinship group, the school, the locality, the nation, and only much later in the wider environment. It is our day-to-day habit to move from local to wider knowledge, from discovery of parts to wholes. It is the way of learning in the absence of a total picture.