Worlds within Worlds. The Holarchy of Life - Kindle edition by Andrew P. Smith. Health, Fitness & Dieting Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. (original) (raw)

A detailed presentation of the holarchical view of existence, which understands life from atoms to human societies as holons. The authors is sympathetic with some of Ken Wilber's better known views, but also highly critical of several major aspects of his work. The book provides equal emphasis to molecular and cellular phenomena as to mental and social life, and also discusses the place of a higher state of consciousness. There is an attempt to formulate general principles of holarchy that include not only the relationships among different forms of existence, but how they evolve.

Among the many authors whose work is featured here are Gregory Chaitin, who has proposed a definition of complexity based on the compressibility of information; Benjamin Libet, whose studies suggest that so-called voluntary movements may not be initiated consciously; Jurgen Habermas, whose critical theory is contrasted with the holarchical view; David Deutsch, on a possible second dimension of time; Stuart Kauffman, Manfred Eigen, and others who have contributed to our understanding of non-Darwinian evolutionary processes; Elliot Sober and David Wilson, who have argued for a role of group selection in evolution; and Rupert Sheldrake, whose theory of morphic resonance is heavily criticized.