Whole: Something that has parts and behaves as a unit.
There seem to be two basic kinds of wholes: Such as behave as a
unit because they physically cohere, and such as behave as a unit
because their parts interact systematically and collectively behave as
and within the unit they are part of.
This roughly distinguishes coherent
inanimate things, that e.g. move as a whole if one of their parts is
moved, and animated things, that are made up of cooperating parts whose
One way in which actions interdepend is
that one part (bone-marrow) of something (a human being) may produce and
emit parts (red bloodcells), often called output(s), that enter
into other parts (blood-vessels), in which they are often said to be
input(s), that again contribute to the first part (to keep the
bone-marrow working); briefer and to the same effect: if the actions of
one part are required or inhibitory for actions of another part.