Smuts, Jan Christiaan (Smuts Jan Christian)

(1870-1950)
Born May 24, 1870 in Bovenplatse near Riebeeck West in the Cape Colony. He studied at the University of Victoria in Stellenbosch, and then at Christ's College, Cambridge University. In 1898 became the Attorney of the Transvaal. During the 1899 negotiations with the British on the political rights uitlenderov. After the British troops captured Pretoria, Smuts led troops Boers in Cape Colony, but in May 1902 realized that further resistance was pointless. At the talks in Vereeniging recommended the Boer leaders to accept the proposed peace terms to the UK.
With the coming to power in 1905 in the UK Liberal Party, Smuts went to London and persuaded the government to impose a regime in the Transvaal government and establish an electoral system that would give an advantage Afrikaners. Thereafter followed a policy of cooperation with Britain and the South African Union.

During the First World War, Smuts took part in suppressing the rebellion of Afrikaners and the conquest Germanskoy South-West Africa and commanded British forces in East Africa and became a member of the military government D. Lloyd George.

After his death in 1919, Botha Smuts succeeded him as prime minister. After being defeated by the leader of the Nationalist Party Dzh.Gertsoga in 1924, Smuts has devoted himself to study of philosophy. He returned to public activity during the economic depression of the 1930's. He was Deputy Prime Minister Herzog. In 1939 Smuts formed a government, which declared war on Germany.

In 1948 the party Smuts lost the general election the National Party headed by D. Malanya.

Smuts died in Irene, near Pretoria on 11 September 1950.

Philosophy. Smuts was the creator of the philosophy of 'holism' (from the Greek. holos - whole) that the main factor of evolution is the desire for edification wholes. He believed that even in inorganic matter clear tendency to the formation of structures or integrity, it can be seen in the atomic structure and properties of chemical compounds. This trend is even more evident in the living cell, whose behavior can not be explained by the laws of mechanics, because the cell is a good example of subordination to an extremely complex system of parts of the interests of the whole. With the advent of mind control exercised by this integrity, gaining consciousness, and development begins to occur much more rapidly. The climax of the evolution of an identity, which we immediately obtain as the widest variety of parts, physical and spiritual, and the most pronounced personality. 'Holism - wrote Smuts, - not only creators but also samosozidatelen, and its final structure is much more coherent than its original structure'. Smuts believed that Darwin overestimated the importance of the principle of survival of the fittest and pay little attention to the positive evolution of the sources. He was convinced that his concept finally refuted the mechanistic theory of biology, and in the notion of a unified identity mankind has received a firm foundation for ethics. Smuts explained his philosophy in his book Holism and Evolution (Holism and Evolution, 1926).