Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Janus: A Summing Up

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
8.6
/
10
1
Votes
Alchetron
8.6
8.6
1 Ratings
100
90
81
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate This

Rate This

Country
  
United States

Publication date
  
1978

Pages
  
354

Originally published
  
1978

Genre
  
Philosophy

Page count
  
354

4.3/5
Goodreads

Language
  
English

Media type
  
Print

ISBN
  
0-330-25842-7

Author
  
Publisher
  
Hutchinson


Similar
  
Arthur Koestler books, Other books

Janus: A Summing Up is a 1978 book by Arthur Koestler that develops his philosophical idea of the holarchy, introduced in his 1967 book, The Ghost in the Machine. The holarchy provides a coherent way of organizing knowledge and nature all together. The idea of the holarchy is that everything we can think of is composed of holons (simultaneously both part and whole), so that each holon is always a constituent of a larger one and yet also contains other holons that are constituents of a lower level system within. Every holon is like a two-faced Janus, the Roman god: one side (the whole) looks down (or inward); the other side (the part) looks up (or outward). Each whole is a part of something greater, and each part is in turn an organizing whole to the elements that constitute it. Koestler believed that everything in a healthy system is organized this way, from the human body, to chemistry to the history of philosophy.

The concept of holon, however, is closely integrated in Janus with the theory of complex systems as was developed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy and Herbert Simon, both well known investigators and friends of Koestler. Janus put together one of the first broad based arguments for incorporating the theory of complex systems into the philosophy of science and epistemology.

Editions

  • Hutchinson, 1978, U.K, hardcover edition ISBN 0-09-132100-X
  • Random House, 1978, U.S. hardcover edition ISBN 0-394-50052-0
  • Picador, 1979, or Pan Macmillan, 1983 UK paperback editions ISBN 0-330-25842-7
  • Vintage Books, 1979, U.S. paperback edition ISBN 0-394-72886-6
  • References

    Janus: A Summing Up Wikipedia


    Similar Topics