Open AccessClausewitz and the Gestalt of War
Author(s) -
Zoltán Jobbágy
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
academic and applied research in military and public management science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2786-0744
pISSN - 2498-5392
DOI - 10.32565/aarms.2013.1.13
Subject(s) - gestalt psychology , phenomenon , german , simple (philosophy) , psychology , epistemology , computer science , cognitive science , artificial intelligence , philosophy , linguistics , perception
War features unpredictability, incompleteness and instability. It is composed of a com- plex web of interconnected constituents in which friction poses a serious challenge. Clausewitz regarded war an integrated and holistic activity with having one gestalt as a functional unit. The term gestalt comes from German and stands for shape. It refers to the concept of wholeness with properties that cannot be summed up by their parts and do not equal a simple summation. Unpredictability helps us see war as a phenomenon that cannot be compounded from the actions of the constituent parts. War can be described with a certain precision, but this precision is not necessarily relevant to the parts. The gestalt of war accords with the observation that war does not always allow for logical, direct and traceable connections between causes and effects.