The ghost in the machine
by Arthur Koestler · first published 1967
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The Ghost in the Machine is a work in philosophical psychology published in 1967. 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. One of the book's central concepts is that as the human brain evolved, it retained and built upon earlier, more primitive brain structures. The work attempts to explain humanity's tendency towards self-destruction in terms of
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…Ramsey "When We Are No More: how Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future" Down "Brilliant Beacons: a History of the American Lighthouse" Koestler "Darkness Before Noon" & "The Invisible Writing" & "The Ghost in the Machine" John Gardner - anything really but October light and the sunlight dialogs in particular.
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books?” ↗Would we then be parts of the jewel attempting to understand its own nature, and if this is correct, finding our own substructure? I am reminded of Arthur Koestler's theory of holarchy, put forth in "Ghost in the Machine".
on “Scientists Discover a Jewel at the Heart of Quantum Physics (2013)” ↗See Arthur Koestler's book "The Ghost in the Machine" published in 1967. Koestler coined the word "holon". A holon is a whole functional and structural unit while at the same time a part of a larger whole, which is itself a part of an even larger whole.…
on “Ask HN: Any recommended books on developing mental models?” ↗…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.[1] The term was coined by Arthur Koestler in The Ghost in the Machine (1967).
on “Holons,in the context of self-organizing holarchic open (SOHO) systems” ↗