Contextualism

If 'Atomism' is the thesis that a manifold is an aggregate of simple elements, 'Wholism' holds that that the constituents of that manifold are the parts of some prior unity. A middle ground between Atomism and Wholism could be called 'Contextualism', which believes that that manifold is a heterogeneous collection of opaque manifolds. For example, Dewey's concept of 'Experience' is a Context, i. e. an 'Experience', for him, is a discrete sequence of interactions between a human and their environment, unified by a mood. Likewise, a Wittgensteinian 'language-game' can be classified as a Context. Thus, Atomism can be challenged not only by Wholism, but by Contextualism, as well. However, as is the case with Wholism, a Contextualist challenge to Atomistic Logicism is not necessarily a repudiation of Logicism. For example, a Proposition can be construed as a Context, i. e. as an opaque unity of a manifold of words. Thus, Frege's contention that words have no meaning outside of the propositions in which they are used, is a Contextualist critique of Atomism that is hardly anti-Logicistic. In fact, it exposes a confusion in Russell's Logicism--whether it is individual subjects or propositions that are the simple elements in Russell's System. If the latter, then Russell, too, is a Contextualist, not an Atomist.