Arthur Koestler (1967), The Ghost in the Machine, London: Hutchinson; New York: Macmillan — https://archive.org/details/ghostinmachine0000unse
Key takeaways
Unread. From general knowledge, to be checked against the text.
- The holon. Every stable subsystem is Janus-faced: autonomous as a whole, dependent as a part.
- Two tendencies. A self-assertive tendency that preserves the holon’s individuality, and an integrative tendency by which it functions as part of the larger whole.
- Holarchy. A hierarchy of holons. Koestler draws on Simon (1962, LIT-905), whose watchmaker parable he retells; that he cites it is from general knowledge.
Standing in the record
Filed on 2026-10-11. In the discussion of a name for the dancing couple
(CASE-046), the holon’s two tendencies were offered as a description
of members, and the word itself was set aside. It names a position in a
part–whole hierarchy rather than how integration is kept up, and it would
bring back the permissiveness objection (CLAIM-010). The rest of the book,
on the brain and on human self-destructiveness, is outside the reason for
filing. published: is the first of January 1967, the year alone being
known. Not held in the anthology.