Holons and Monads

Koestler’s holon

The word “Holon” was invented by Arthur Koestler and has a philosophical context. Meaning being a whole and a part simultaneously. It remains the unanswered question what the human being really is. Is the human being a body with the spiritual warmth, that can show potential and actualization of it to other humans like love and affection; regarding Maxwell’s daemon ? Or can it be considered a machine with some kind of mind, soul or ghost inside? In what sphere did Koestler write “The Ghost in the Machine“ ? This and more in my newest to be written book.

What is the relationship between the holon and a monad and is the relationship to be found in the words “Collectivum & Individuation” ? (Jung & Steiner) What does Ken Wilber say about it concerning his “Theory of Everything” implying that it requires an integral way of looking at it ? Is Bergson’s “Open & Closed Morality” based upon a principle of the internal struggle between the duals “Collectivum” – holon and the “Individual” – monad ?

Koestler made 2 observations; first, that complex systems merge faster from simplex systems in the presence of a stable intermediate or catalyser. Second, in case of a stable intermediate there merges a hierarchy within in vivo organisms and social organizations as well. Absolutely speaking wholes and parts do not exist free and-or independent of each other. Thus a holon is the hybrid nature of sub-wholes and parts within in vivo systems. Think for example about the organs in your physio-biological body. They contain some autonomy as an individual organ and participate of the whole (body). So holons are simultaneously supra-ordinately self-contained in relation to their sub-ordinate parts.

The holon is a system or phenomenon like human beings what is an evolving self-organizing dissipative structure. To understand this better we can regard Pascal’s triangle structure and think about the subject fractalization. There is to be created a balance between the duals “Collectivum & Individual”, a balance between “Chaos & Order”. As I wrote in my blog about “Autopoiesis” this is a typical example of Complex Adaptive Systems – CAS – with an open energy (dissipative) system and free connecting possibilities to its surroundings. Out of these free connections that become preferred self-actualizing loopings a new stable structure emerges. It’s like Gilles Deleuze described with has sub- and supra-saturation within fluid liquids, that create crystals or substances in a chemical way of speaking.

What is a monad in this perspective ? Regarding a monad in a spiritual-philosophical way a monad has autonomy, is independent, has no convictions and interests. So the chance to be influenced by its surroundings is nihil, zero. For Koestler the monad is the “heart” of the holon. So the individual holon possesses a dominant monad, you can say there’s authenticity, congruence between monad and holon, phenomenonally speaking. You can consider it as Wilber’s “I”. Authenticity – here – means that monad – “I” and the substance “It” are congruent. A social holon has no dominant monad does not possess a dominant monad, it only possesses a definable “We”, where “their surroundings can be considered the "Ïts” of Ken Wilber. This holon acts like a collectivum where the individual holon acts like an agency.

Referring to Will McWhinney’s description about these 2 terms, where he calls the collectivum a “Community”. Think about a flock of geese or a school of fishes. Here we speak about “Synergy”. Synergy is not to be made, synergy emerges from so-called chaos situations such as danger to become a victim of a predator looking at these geese or fishes. Even at great resignations within organizations during the financial crisis. Is human being really different and capable to expel and overcome the duality between Individuation (monad) and Collectivum (holon) ?