It's HOLONs...all the way up, and all the way down...

Tenet 1

*snip*

Reality is not composed of things or processes, but of holons, which are wholes that are simultaneously parts of other wholes with no upward or downward limit.

Reality is not composed of sub-atomic particles (materialism) nor is it composed of ideas, symbols, or thoughts (idealism). It is composed of holons. According to Wilber, holons can be expressed in material, spiritual, or purely abstract terms....In mathematics, what we see as today’s wholes may very well become tomorrow’s parts.
[link to www.esalenctr.org]

Holons are holistic systems mathematically prescribed by the ancient Hebrew Names of God through their gematria values. Examples are the superstring, the human skeleton and human DNA. If you want to study the amazing properties of holons, visit:
[link to smphillips.8m.com]

Tenets 2 a,b,c,d

2 a: Self-preservation (or agency). A hydrogen atom in a suitable context can keep on being a hydrogen atom. It displays self-preservation in the simple sense of maintaining identity or agency across time. A holon in a living context is an even more remarkable, sophisticated agency. In short, holons are defined not by the stuff of which they are made but by the pattern they display.

2 b: Self-adaptation (or communion). A holon functions not only as a self-preserving whole but also as a part of a larger whole. The partness aspect of a holon is displayed by its capacity to accommodate, to register other holons, to fit into its existing environment. Two opposing tendencies—agency and communion: agency as the self-preserving, self-asserting tendency which expresses wholeness and relative autonomy; and communion as the participatory boding, joining tendency which expresses partness in relationship to something larger. An excess of either tendency can deform or kill a holon, whether the growth of a plant or of the patriarchy.

2 c: Self-transcendence. When an oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms are brought together under suitable conditions, a new and in some way unprecedented holon emerges. It is a transformation resulting in something novel and emergent. This is what Whitehead calls creativity, the category necessary to describe any other category.

2d: Self-dissolution. Holons that are built up through vertical self-transcendence can also break down. When holons dissolve or become unglued, they tend to so along the same vertical sequence along which they were built up.

Leonard pointed out that there is a constant tension among the above four tendencies. For example, helium may be called inert, but a different description is that helium does not want to join into communion (tenet 2b) with other elements.
[link to www.esalenctr.org]

I Love Ken Wilbur! "A Brief History of Everything" was a life-changing book!

Yeah, his stuff is amazing. I've read most of his stuff. Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality is my favorite, though it is mammoth in size.

All I can do with some of SS's posts is to search Google to try to figure out what it's all about.

From Wikipedia: A holon (Greek: ὅλον, holon neuter form of ὅλος, holos "whole") is something that is simultaneously a whole and a part. The word was coined by Arthur Koestler in his book The Ghost in the Machine (1967, p. 48)...

From this parable, Simon concludes that complex systems will evolve from simple systems much more rapidly if there are stable intermediate forms than if there are not; the resulting complex systems in the former case will be hierarchic. [link to en.wikipedia.org]

(I don't even understand that)!

Tenet 5

Each emergent holon transcends but includes its predecessors. Each newly emergent holon preserves the previous holons themselves but negates their separateness or isolatedness. In other words, all the lower is in the higher but not all the higher is in the lower. Hydrogen atoms are in the water molecule but the water molecule is not in the atom. Just as all of the word is in the sentence but not all the sentence is in the word.
[link to www.esalenctr.org]

Its very simple...a HOLON is a concept. In and of itself, it is a whole, but it is part of a more complex whole. this is the PATTERN of reality. Read Tenet 5 for a quick example...

...and, BTW, that is why I am walking you through it! You're jumping ahead! Stop it!

REMEMBER, A HOLON IS A CONCEPT. IT IS A PATTERN THAT OUR REALITY FOLLOWS. IT CAN BE PLACED IN ANY IDEOLOGY, AND IT IS TRUE.

Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality was required reading for a college philosophy class...you are correct in stating its physical size (large) & the large impact the text has on all layers of life experience!

Great to see another GLP'er who has been exposed to Wilbur's ideas. He never went to college -- great background on him & at his online institute site: [link to www.integralinstitute.org]

I always thought his look is remarkably similar to another great philosopher: Michel Foucault...

Oh, & great blog, Sickscent!

Tenet 6

The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probabilities of the lower. Even though the higher goes beyond the lower level, it does not violate the law or pattern of the lower level. It can’t be reduced to the lower level or determined by the lower level, but neither can it ignore the lower level. As for the higher restricting the possibility of the lower, here is how Sheldrake puts it (Quoted from Sex, Ecology, Spirituality, p.55),

At every level, the fields of the holons are probabilistic, and the material processes within the holon are somewhat random or indeterminate. Higher-level fields may act upon the fields of lower level holons in such a way that their probability structures are modified. This can be thought of in terms of a restriction of their indeterminism: out of the many possible patterns of events that could have happened, some now become much more likely to happen as a result of the order imposed by the higher-level field. This field organizes and patterns the indeterminism that would be shown by the lower-level holons in isolation. (Rupert Sheldrake, The Presence of the Past, pp. 120-121.)
[link to www.esalenctr.org]

Tenet 7

The number of levels which a hierarchy comprises determines whether it is ‘shallow’ or ‘deep;’ and the number of holons on any given level we shall call its ‘span.’ Let us arbitrarily assign atoms a depth of 3 (since they contain components of at least 2 previous levels). Let us imagine a time in the early universe when there were only atoms and no molecules. In that case, we can say that atoms have a small depth but an enormous span stretching through the existent universe. Thus depth equals 3 and span equals zillions. When molecules first emerged, they had a depth of 4, but initially a very small span. When there is greater vertical dimension to the holon, then there is greater depth to that holon.
[link to www.esalenctr.org]



You can further think of this as 'complexity'...further the complexity, lessen the span. More frequency oscillations per space/time...-SickScent

OK, I'll stop being lazy and login. I'm tracking the concept, pretty straight-forward once I stopped working and concentrated on it.

The concept reminds me of fractals in some sense.

I've listened to "A Brief History of Everything" in audio (not realizing we're talking about same Ken Wilbur)...did he mention HOLONs in that book?

I'll move through the 20 tenets quickly, then we can go back over all of it and see how it works throughout all of our current reality.

It is very much like fractal. Ken Wilber was stuck on holography and heirarchy structures to formulate the complete Holon construct...so, yes, it should very much remind you of fractals.

This concept is pretty cool. Once you concentrate and get the gist of it, every other part of it makes complete sense.

uhuh
when I read the title I wanted to post: read Wilber! But seems you did :)

I believe he very briefly mentioned them. He goes into great detail with them in Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality.

He is almost an unsung hero in my opinion.

Tenet 8

Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span. The greater the depth of a holon, the more precarious its situation. Since its existence depends on the existence of a series of other holons internal to it, and since the lower holons are components of the higher, there can’t be more number of the higher than there are number of components. The number of water molecules will always be less than the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the universe. The number of cells in the universe will always be less than the number of molecules in the universe. Also, the span of mental holons is much less than the span of living holons. This is called the pyramid of development.

Addition 1 to Tenet 8: The greater the depth of a holon, the greater its degree of consciousness.
[link to www.esalenctr.org]

Did he coin the term "holon" or is it from another theory?

Another theory I believe...

I always thought he was quite famous in the neophilosophical field? I haven't read much of him, and can't clearly recall it (I quite quickly integrate new knowledge in my thinking and worldview, beyond recognition often) but do remember when he laid out his theory on holons. Hit the spot...

Tenet 9

Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it. This is an important tenet because it provides a simple test as to where in the holarchy any holon stands. Let’s again take our familiar holistic sequence, sub-atomic particles, atoms, molecules, cells, and so on. Here each member includes its predecessor(s) but not vice versa. And thus each successive number is indeed more encompassing or thus more holistic. If we destroyed, for example, all the molecules in the universe, we would also destroy all the cells in the universe—all the holons above molecules. But atoms and subatomic particles would or could still exist. None of the lower holons would have to cease existing. The more fundamental a holon is, the less significant it is and vice versa. That is, the less depth a holon has, the more fundamental it is to the cosmos, because it serves as a component to so many other holons. Atoms, for example, are very fundamental because molecules, cells, organisms, life, and mind, and higher states, all depend on them. At the same time, the less depth a holon has the less significant it is to the cosmos. Primates, as a counter example, are not very fundamental holons because neither atoms nor molecules depend upon them, but they are very significant because they represent and contain atoms, molecules, and cells. They signify more of the cosmos.
[link to www.esalenctr.org]

I do the same...

And he did hit the spot! I even named my industrial/metal band HOLON back in the day.

Tenet 10

Holarchies co-evolve. Holons don’t evolve alone, because there are no alone holons (there are only fields within fields within fields). This principle is often referred to as "co-evolution," which simply means that the "unit" of evolution is not an isolated holon but a holon plus its inseparable environment.
[link to www.esalenctr.org]

Tenet 11

The micro is in relational exchange with macro at all levels of its depth. Take a human being as an example using the three levels of matter, life, and mind. All these levels maintain their own existence through a network of relational exchanges with holons at the same depth in the environment. The physical body exists in a system of relational exchanges with other physical bodies in terms of gravitation, material forces, energies, light, water, and so on. The human race reproduces itself physically through food production and consumption. Humanity reproduces itself biologically through emotional-sexual relations organized by family and appropriate social environment and depends on a whole network of other biological systems. Finally, human beings reproduce themselves mentally through exchanges with cultural and symbolic environments, the very essence of which is the relational exchange of symbols with other symbol exchangers. In short, as holons evolve, each layer of depth continues to exist and depend upon a network of relationships with other holons at the same level of structure and organization.
[link to www.esalenctr.org]