"[4] The book was part of a broader trend of interest in holism in European and colonial academia during the early twentieth century.

[1] Smuts based his philosophy of holism on the thoughts behind his earlier book, Walt Whitman: A Study in the Evolution of Personality, written during his time at Cambridge in the early 1890s.

[3] Smuts' formulation of holism has also been linked with his political-military activity, especially his aspiration to create a league of nations: "the unification of the four provinces in the Union of South Africa, the idea of the British Commonwealth of Nations, and, finally, the great whole resulting from the combination of the peoples of the earth were just a logical progression consistent with his philosophical tenets.

[9]: 113  The field characterizes a whole as a unified and synthesized event in the system of relativity that includes not only its present but also its past—and also its future potentialities.

[9]: 190–192 The whole exhibits a discernible regulatory function as it relates to cooperation and coordination of the structure and activity of parts, and to the selection and deselection of variations.

With minds, the regulatory function of holism acquires consciousness and freedom, demonstrating a creative power of the most far-reaching character.