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In The Sleepwalkers and The Act of Creation Arthur Koestler provided pioneering studies of scientific discovery and artistic inspiration, the twin pinnacles of human achievement. The Ghost in the Machine looks at the dark side of the coin: our terrible urge to self-destruction...Could the human species be a gigantic evolutionary mistake? To answer that startling question Koestler examines how experts on evolution and psychology all too often write about people with an 'antiquated slot-machine model based on the naively mechanistic world-view of the nineteenth century. His brilliant polemic helped to instigate a major revolution in the life sciences, yet its 'glimpses of an alternative world-view' form only the background to an even more challenging analysis of the human predicament. Perhaps, he suggests, we are a species in which ancient and recent brain structures - or reason and emotion - are not fully co-ordinated. Such in-built deficiencies may explain the paranoia, violence and insanity that are central strands of human history. And however disturbing we find such issues, Koestler contends, it is only when we face our limitations head-on that we can hope to find a remedy.
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B ooks A rthur K oestler by Novels The Gladiators* Darkness at Noon Arrival and Departure* Thieves in the Night* The Age of Longing Essays The Yogi and the Commissar* Insight and Outlook Promise and Fulfilment The Trail of the Dinosaur Reflections on Hanging The Sleepwalkers The Lotus and the Robot The Act of Creation Suicide of a Nation? (edit.) Autobiography Dialogue with Death* Scum of the Earth Arrow in the Blue The Invisible Writing The God That Failed (with others) Theatre Twilight Bar *Also available in the uniform Danube Edition THE GHOS T I N THE M A C H I N E ------------------------- — «H> — -------------------- BY A R T H U R K0 O E S T L E R THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, NEW YORK © Arthur Koestler 1967 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 68-10630 Second Printing 1968 The Macmillan Company, New York Collier-Macmillan Canada Ltd., Toronto, Ontario P rinted in the U nited States of A merica (a ) d ( f- M um t-X To the Fellows and Staff 1964-5 the Centre fo r Advanced Study in the Behavioural Sciences CONTENTS Preface PART ONE ORDER I THE POVERTY OF PSYCHOLOGY The Four Pillars of Unwisdom - The Rise of Behaviourism - The De-Humanisation of Man How to Manipulate Tautologies - The Philosophy of Ratomorphism II THE CHA IN OF W ORDS AND THE TREE OF LANGUAGE The Chain - The Tree - 4What Did You Say?* - The Postman and the Dog - *What Do You Mean By That7* - Rules, Strategies and Feedbacks HI THE HO LO N The Parable of the Two Watchmakers - Enter Janus Social Holons - The Basic Polarity IV IN D IV ID U A L S AND DIV IDUA LS A Note about Diagrams - Inorganic Systems - The Organism and its Spares - The Integrative Powers of CONTENTS V TRIGGERS AND FILTERS J1 Trigger - How to Build a Nest - Filters VI A MEMORY FOR FORGETTING 84 Abstractive Memory - A Speculative View - Two Types of Memory - Picture-Strip Memory - Images and Schemata - Learning by Rote vn THE HELMSMAN 95 Sensory-Motor Routines - Feedbacks and Homeostasis Loops within Loops - A Holarchy of Holons VHI HABIT AND IM PR O V ISA T IO N IO