Janus: A Summing Up
by Koestler, Arthur
- Used
- Very Good
- Paperback
- Condition
- Very Good
- ISBN 10
- 0330258427
- ISBN 13
- 9780330258425
- Seller
-
Benalla, Victoria, Australia
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Picador (Pan Books), 1983. Soft cover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 354 pages. The pages are tanned, else a clean unmarked and solid copy. "Janus: A Summing Up is a 1978 book by Arthur Koestler, in which the author develops his philosophical idea of the holarchy. First introduced in Koestler's 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." (Wikipedia)
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Details
- Bookseller
- Good Reading Second Hand Books (AU)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 020677
- Title
- Janus: A Summing Up
- Author
- Koestler, Arthur
- Format/Binding
- Soft cover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Binding
- Paperback
- ISBN 10
- 0330258427
- ISBN 13
- 9780330258425
- Publisher
- Picador (Pan Books)
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1983
- Size
- 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall
- Keywords
- Arthur Koestler
Terms of Sale
Good Reading Second Hand Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Good Reading Second Hand Books
Biblio member since 2008
Benalla, Victoria
About Good Reading Second Hand Books
Good Reading operates from a house, which is all bookshop, and holds approximately 35,000 titles. It is open by appointment only.Benalla is a country town two and a half hours north of Melbourne on both the Hume and the Midland Highway.