Having parts that are interrelated and interdependent in a way analogous to that of the limbs or organs of a living creature. The notion of an organic unity is prominent in G. E. Moore. If an entity such as a work of art, or the state, or a complex of pleasure and desire, is thought of as an organic unity, the implication is that the whole cannot be exhaustively understood in terms of the parts, since the parts and their functioning have in turn to be identified by their role in sustaining the whole. See also holism.