Holon (philosophy)

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Parable of the two watchmakers

There once were two watchmakers, named Bios and Mekhos, who made very fine watches. The phones in their workshops rang frequently; new customers were constantly calling them. However, Bios prospered while Mekhos became poorer and poorer. In the end, Mekhos lost his shop and worked as a mechanic for Bios. What was the reason behind this? The watches consisted of about 1000 parts each. The watches that Mekhos made were designed such that, when he had to put down a partly assembled watch (for instance, to answer the phone), it immediately fell into pieces and had to be completely reassembled from the basic elements. On the other hand Bios designed his watches so that he could put together subassemblies of about ten components each. Ten of these subassemblies could be put together to make a larger sub-assembly. Finally, ten of the larger subassemblies constituted the whole watch. When Bios had to put his watches down to attend to some interruption they did not break up into their elemental parts but only into their sub-assemblies. Now, the watchmakers were each disturbed at the same rate of once per hundred assembly operations. However, due to their different assembly methods, it took Mekhos four thousand times longer than Bios to complete a single watch.

Contents

Herbert Simon, quoted by Arthur Koestler (1967)

A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole in and of itself, as well as a part of a larger whole. In this way, a holon can be considered a subsystem within a larger hierarchical system. [1]

The holon represents a way to overcome the dichotomy between parts and wholes, as well as a way to account for both the self-assertive and the integrative tendencies of organisms. [2] Holons are sometimes discussed in the context of self-organizing holarchic open (SOHO) systems. [2] [1]

The word holon (Ancient Greek : ὅλον) is a combination of the Greek holos (ὅλος) meaning 'whole', with the suffix -on which denotes a particle or part (as in proton and neutron). Holons are self-reliant units that possess a degree of independence and can handle contingencies without asking higher authorities for instructions (i.e., they have a degree of autonomy). These holons are also simultaneously subject to control from one or more of these higher authorities. The first property ensures that holons are stable forms that are able to withstand disturbances, while the latter property signifies that they are intermediate forms, providing a context for the proper functionality for the larger whole.

History

The term holon was coined by Arthur Koestler in The Ghost in the Machine (1967), though Koestler first articulated the concept in The Act of Creation (1964), in which he refers to the relationship between the searches for subjective and objective knowledge:

Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky. The glory of science is not in a truth more absolute than the truth of Bach or Tolstoy, but in the act of creation itself. The scientist's discoveries impose his own order on chaos, as the composer or painter imposes his; an order that always refers to limited aspects of reality, and is based on the observer's frame of reference, which differs from period to period as a Rembrant nude differs from a nude by Manet. [3]

Koestler would finally propose the term holon in The Ghost in the Machine (1967), using it to describe natural organisms as composed of semi-autonomous sub-wholes (or, parts) that are linked in a form of hierarchy, a holarchy, to form a whole. [2] [4] [5] The title of the book itself points to the notion that the entire 'machine' of life and of the universe itself is ever-evolving toward more and more complex states, as if a ghost were operating the machine. [6]

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<i>Janus: A Summing Up</i> 1978 book by Arthur Koestler

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<i>The Ghost in the Machine</i> 1967 book by Arthur Koestler

The Ghost in the Machine is a 1967 book about philosophical psychology by Arthur Koestler. The title is a phrase coined by the Oxford philosopher Gilbert Ryle to describe the Cartesian dualist account of the mind–body relationship. Koestler shares with Ryle the view that the mind of a person is not an independent non-material entity, temporarily inhabiting and governing the body. The work attempts to explain humanity's self-destructive tendency in terms of individual and collective functioning, philosophy, and overarching, cyclical political–historical dynamics, peaking in the nuclear weapons arena.

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The "ghost in the machine" is a term originally used to describe and critique the concept of the mind existing alongside and separate from the body. In more recent times, the term has several uses, including the concept that the intellectual part of the human mind is influenced by emotions; and within fiction, for an emergent consciousness residing in a computer.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biological organisation</span> Hierarchy of complex structures and systems within biological sciences

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An integrative level, or level of organization, is a set of phenomena emerging from pre-existing phenomena of a lower level. The levels concept is an intellectual framework for structuring reality. It arranges all entities, structures, and processes in the universe, or in a certain field of study, into a hierarchy, typically based on how complex their organization is. When arranged this way, each entity is three things at the same time: It is made up of parts from the previous level below. It is a whole in its own right. And it is a part of the whole that is on the next level above. Typical examples include life emerging from non-living substances, and consciousness emerging from nervous systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Living systems</span> Multiple interactions and regulation of life forms with their environment

Living systems are life forms treated as a system. They are said to be open self-organizing and said to interact with their environment. These systems are maintained by flows of information, energy and matter. Multiple theories of living systems have been proposed. Such theories attempt to map general principles for how all living systems work.

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Arthur Koestler was an Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler joined the Communist Party of Germany, but he resigned in 1938 after becoming disillusioned with Stalinism.

Integral theory as developed by Ken Wilber is a synthetic metatheory aiming to unify a broad spectrum of Western theories and models and Eastern meditative traditions within a singular conceptual framework. The original basis, which dates to the 1970s, is the concept of a "spectrum of consciousness" that ranges from archaic consciousness to the highest form of spiritual consciousness, depicting it as an evolutionary developmental model. This model incorporates stages of development as described in structural developmental stage theories, as well as eastern meditative traditions and models of spiritual growth, and a variety of psychic and supernatural experiences.

Holacracy is a method of decentralized management and organizational governance, which claims to distribute authority and decision-making through a holarchy of self-organizing teams rather than being vested in a management hierarchy. Holacracy has been adopted by for-profit and non-profit organizations in several countries. This can be seen as a greater movement within organisational design to cope with increasing complex social environments, that promises a greater degree of transparency, effectiveness and agility.

PROSE was the mathematical 4GL virtual machine that established the holistic modeling paradigm known as Synthetic Calculus. A successor to the SLANG/CUE simulation and optimization language developed at TRW Systems, it was introduced in 1974 on Control Data supercomputers. It was the first commercial language to employ automatic differentiation (AD), which was optimized to loop in the instruction-stack of the CDC 6600 CPU.

References

  1. 1 2 Kay, J. J. (February 2000) [1999]. "Application of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and Le Chatelier's Principle to the Developing Ecosystem". In Müller, F. (ed.). Handbook of Ecosystem Theories and Management. Environmental & Ecological (Math) Modeling. CRC Press. ISBN   978-1-56670-253-9. As systems move away from equilibrium, they use all available avenues to counter the applied gradients ... Le Chatelier's principle is an example of this equilibrium seeking principle.
    For full details, see: Kay, James J. (2000). Jorgensen, Sven Erik; Müller, Felix (eds.). "Handbook of Ecosystem Theories and Management". Ecosystems as Self-organizing Holarchic Open Systems: Narratives and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. CRC Press– Lewis Publishers. p. 5. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.11.856 . Retrieved August 19, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 "Arthur Koestler, Some general properties of self-regulating open hierarchic order (1969)". www.panarchy.org. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  3. ↑ Koestler, Arthur. [1964] 1970. The Act of Creation . p. 253.
  4. ↑ "Holon and Holarchy : Arthur Koestler". Sociocratic Democracy. June 25, 2014. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  5. ↑ Koestler, Arthur. 1967. [1967] 1990. The Ghost in the Machine (registration required). London: Hutchinson (Penguin Group). ISBN   0-14-019192-5. p. 48.
  6. ↑ The Holonic Revolution Holons, Holarchies and Holonic Networks: The Ghost in the Production Machine . Pavia University Press. ISBN   978-88-96764-00-8. doi : 10.13140/2.1.1954.5922
  7. ↑ Simon, Herbert A. [1969] 1990. The Sciences of the Artificial (6th ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. ISBN   0-26269073-X.

Further reading

See also

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