The potentialities of the holotheme

The intention of this paper is to present an assessment, strictly from my own standpoint, of the material given in Leo Jolley's book The Fabric of Knowledge. It will be concerned mainly with two aspects: first, certain points about the mathematical structure of the classification of knowledge which he called the ‘holotheme’, which in my opinion calls for comment and secondly, sundry criticisms of the system of ‘integrative levels’ which form the backbone of the whole scheme. To summarize my conclusions in one sentence, Jolley's work contains a challenge—or alternatively a temptation—to extend and improve it; but the attraction lies more in the structure than in the content, and past experience warns us that this may be illusory.