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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.
Dec 28, 2023 · A holon is something that is simultaneously a whole in and of itself, and part of a larger whole. Everything in reality is composed of holons. An atom is both a whole in and of itself and part of the larger whole that is a molecule. A molecule is a whole by itself but also part of a cell. A cell is a whole and also part of your body.
Dec 8, 2022 · What Isn’t a Holon? (Heaps, Wholes, and Artifacts) An overview of the different kinds of holarchy (or nested hierarchy) that exist in the universe. Taking a first-person inside perspective of various holons in a group, at multiple levels of evolution.
- Introduction
- Arthur Koestler – The Father of Holon Theory
- Koestler's Holon
- The Evolutionary Holon
- Holons and Holarchies
- Ken Wilber's Holonic Tenets
- Wilber's Aqal Framework and The Holon
- The Holon - Integral Theory's Unit of Analysis
- Holism, Reductionism and Pluralism
- Similarities and Differences
The idea of hierarchy and of their constituent part-wholes, or holons, has, as Arthur Koestler points out in the opening quote, a long and distinguished history. There are many philosophers who have proposed abstract systems for explaining natural and social phenomena. In pre-Socratic Greece Leuciddus and Deocritus developed the abstract concept of...
Some 35 years ago, in 1967, Arthur Koestler proposed the term "holon" in his book "The Ghost in the Machine". Arthur Koestler was born in 1905 and died in 1983. During the 1930's and 1040's Koestler was a journalist who covered the Spanish civil war and World War II from the perspective of the ordinary people who were swept up in the great social t...
The idea of the holon occupies a central position in Koestler's thinking about the human condition. He developed the construct to deal with three central problems that he saw facing the social sciences of the post-war generation. First he saw the need for some model that could unite and integrate the reductionist and mechanistic worldview of the "s...
In introducing the idea of the holon Koestler quotes the story told to him by Herbert Simon, a Nobel prize winner, and called the 'parable of the two watchmakers'. The parable goes like this: Koestler relates this story to show that the hierarchical organisation of systems is an inbuilt feature of life – biological life but also any complex evolvin...
Koestler noted that in every order of existence, from physical to chemical to biological and social systems, entirely self supporting, non-interacting entities did not exist. And more importantly, that entities can be seen to lie in holarchical relationship with each other. He called systems of such entities Open Hierarchical Systems (OHS) and thes...
Wilber adopted Koestler's holon construct during, what Wilber has called, the phase-2 period in the development of his philosophy. This phase, which occurred around the late seventies and early eighties, is characterised by a focus on the spectral transcend-and–include nature of all developmental structures. It is no surprise that Wilber would be d...
As with Koestler, Wilber uses the holon theory to, "undercut the traditional argument between atomism .. and wholism". For Wilber to incorporate holonic theory into the theoretical structure of the AQAL framework was easy at one level because both theories were founded on the idea of hierarchical inclusion. The difference between them was that Wilb...
The development of the human, in both its personal and social forms, is the most complex phenomena that we yet know about in the Kosmos. To understand this process in any sort of detailed and valid fashion is, to put it mildly, a big task. It is my opinion that Ken Wilber's Integral theory is the only philosophical/epistemological/theoretical frame...
The holon is the holarchic (i.e. hierarchic plus heterarchic) reference point through which the various principles of the AQAL model can be applied. This is the real point behind Wilber's first tenet of holons, "Reality as a whole is not composed of things, or processes, but of holons". He is really pointing out here that holons permit an analytica...
I have pointed out that Koestler has proposed a quite detailed set of holonic principles and shown that the holon construct has a very wide application. Wilber, in turn, has placed the holon construct firmly at the centre of his comprehensive integrative framework for connecting knowledge. Wilber has expanded holon theory into a new approach to und...
Koestler understands organisms to be a multi-levelled hierarchy of semi-autonomous sub-wholes, branching into sub-wholes of a lower order, and so on. Any particular sub-whole at any level of the hierarchy is a holon. A perfect example is the individual.
Jun 6, 2019 · A term that helps us transcend dualism and elevate from suffering. Arthur Koestler coined the term "holon" in The Ghost in the Machine (1967). He concluded that everything is a small part of something larger than itself and can be analyzed into smaller elements in his formulations.
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Dec 10, 2014 · Holons are the vehicle used in this paper to tie network and hierarchy theory together, and show how working in tandem they can advance complexity theory in biology in general. Holons are dual structures that embody contradiction in simultaneous wholeness and partness.
