, Arth OESTLER / :HO& T in the ACHIN J v. f \ \ i The Ghost in the Machine Arthur Koestler alternated all his life between the man ofaction and the man ofletters. Born in Budapest in 1905, he studied at Vienna University before becoming a journalist. As a foreign correspondent he travelled widely, visiting the Middle East, Paris and Moscow. In 1937, while representing the News Chronicle in Spain, he was captured by Franco's troops and imprisoned under sentence ofdeath. He was eventually released on the intervention ofthe British Government and returned to London. During the war he served with the French Foreign Legion and the British Army and in 1945 became Special Correspondent for The Times in Palestine. In the 1940s and early 1950s he was perhaps the most widely read political novelist of our time. DarknessatNoon, considered to behis masterpiece, was published in 1940, followed by Arrival and Departure (1943), Thieves in theNight (1946) TheAgeofLonging (1951) and TheCall Girls (1972). From 1956, he became immersed in questions of science and mysticism and had a huge following among young people. Explaining his varied interests, Koestler wrote: 'Out of my quarrels with the human condition I made my novels; the other books are attempts to analyse that same condition in scientific terms. In my more optimistic moments it seems to me that the two add up to a whole. At any rate, without both media I would feel only halfalive.' The Sleepwalkers (1959), The Act of Creation (1964) and The Ghost in the Machine (1967) make up his classic trilogy on the mind ofman. His other books include The Yogi and the Commissar (1945), The Case of the Midwife Toad (1971) and Bricks to Babel, a collection ofnon-fiction essays. Koestler received the Sonning Prize from the University of Copenhagen in 1968 and was awarded a number of honorary doctorates. He was a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Literature and ofthe Royal Astronomical Society. He was made a CBE in 1972 and a Companion ofLiterature in 1974, and on three occasions was nominated for the Nobel Prize. Arthur Koestler died in 1983. The Times obituary called him 'a con- sistently lucid and humane writer His reputation as one of . . . themostversatileandproteanwritersofourcenturyisthoroughly deserved.' Arthur Koestler I The GHOST ; I in the MACHINE ARKANA ' ARKANA PublishedbythePenguinGroup 27WrightsLane,LondonW85TZ,England VikingPenguinInc.,40West23rdStreet,NewYork,NewYork 10010,USA PenguinBooksAustraliaLtd,Ringwood,Victoria,Australia PenguinBooksCanadaLtd,2801JohnStreet,Markham,Ontario,CanadaL3R 1B4 PenguinBooks(NZ)Ltd, 182-190WairauRoad,Auckland 10,NewZealand PenguinBooksLtd,RegisteredOffices: Harmondsworth,Middlesex,England FirstpublishedbyHutchinson&Co 1967 PublishedbyArkanaBooks 1989 13579108642 © Copyright ArthurKoestler, 1967 Allrightsreserved PrintedandboundinGreatBritainby Cox&WymanLtd,Reading ExceptintheUnitedStatesofAmerica, thisbookissoldsubjecttothecondition thatitshallnot,bywayoftradeorotherwise, belent,re-sold,hiredout,orotherwisecirculated withoutthepublisher'spriorconsentinanyformof bindingorcoverotherthanthatinwhichitis publishedandwithoutasimilarcondition includingthisconditionbeingimposed onthesubsequentpurchaser To the Fellows and Staff 1964-5 at the Centrefor Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences CONTENTS Preface XI PART ONE ORDER THE POVERTY OF PSYCHOLOGY I 3 The Four Pillars ofUnwisdom - The Rise of Behaviourism - The De-Humanisation ofMan - How to Manipulate Tautologies - The Philosophy of Ratomorphism II THE CHAIN OF WORDS AND THE TREE OF LANGUAGE 19 The Chain- The Tree- 'What Did You Say?' - The Postman and the Dog - 'What Do You Mean By That7* - Rules, Strategies and Feedbacks THE HOLON III 45 The Parable ofthe Two Watchmakers - EnterJanus Social Holons - The Basic Polarity IV INDIVIDUALS AND DIVIDUALS 59 A Note about Diagrams - Inorganic Systems - The Organism and its Spares - The Integrative Powers of Life CONTENTS V TRIGGERS AND FILTERS 71 Triggers - How to Builda Nest - Filters VI A MEMORY FOR FORGETTING 84 Abstractive Memory - A Speculative View - Two Types ofMemory - Picture-Strip Memory - Images and Schemata - Learning by Rote VII THE HELMSMAN 95 Sensory-Motor Routines - Feedbacks and Homeostasis - Loops within Loops - A Holarchy ofHolons VUI HABIT AND IMPROVISATION 104 The Origins ofOriginality - The Mechanisation of Habits - One Step at a Time - The Challenge of Environment PART TWO BECOMING IX THE STRATEGY OF EMBRYOS 115 Docility andDetermination - The Genetic Keyboard x evolution: theme and variations 127 Internal Selection - The Case ofthe Eyeless Fly - The Puzzle ofHomology - Archetypes in Biology - The Law ofBalance - The Doppelgangers- The Thirty-Six Plots xi evolution ctd: progress by INITIATIVE 151 Acting Before Reacting - Once More Darwin and Lamarck