20 Tenets of Holons
20 Tenets of Holons
1. Reality as a whole is not composed of things or processes, but of holons, i.e. wholes that are parts of other wholes, indefinitely.
2. Holons display four fundamental capacities:
i) self-preservation – principle of autonomy or agency.
ii) self-adaptation – principle of communion.
iii) self-transcendence – ability to go beyond the given, i.e. creativity.
iv) self-dissolution – ability to break down to its sub-holons.
3. Holons emerge – new holons/entities/patterns come into being.
4. Holons emerge holarchically – i.e. hierarchically; go beyond their predecessors.
5. Each emergent holon transcends and includes its predecessor(s); – preserves their being but negates their exclusiveness.
6. The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probabilities of the lower.
7. The number of levels which a hierarchy comprises determines whether it is ’shallow’ or ‘deep’; the number of holons on any given level we shall call its ’span’.
8. Each successive level of evolution produces greater depth and less span.
Addition I. The greater the depth of a holon, the greater its degree of consciousness. [9]
9. Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it;
- less depth = less significance to the Kosmos, i.e. more of the Kosmos is external to the holon; it is more fundamental.
- more depth = more significance = less fundamental. [10]
10. Holarchies co-evolve, i.e. interrelatedness of holon (micro) and its environment (macro). [11]
11. The micro is in relational exchange with the macro at all levels of its depth; – each layer of a holon’s depth continues to exist in (and depend upon) a network of relationships with other holons at the same level of structural organisation. [12]
12. Evolution has directionality: [13]
a) increasing complexity; [14]
b) increasing differentiation/integration [15]
- differentiation produces partness, a new ‘manyness’
- integration produces wholeness, a new ‘oneness’;
c) increasing organisation/structuration; [16]
d) increasing relative autonomy; [17]
e) increasing telos; – deep structure of a holon acts as an attractor/magnet for the actualisation of it in time and space. [18]
Addition II. Every holon issues an IOU to the Kosmos; – IOU = Incomplete Or Uncertain – constant tension between consistency and completeness, between agency and communion. [19]
Addition III. All IOUs are redeemed in Emptiness; – holons are conventional truths – Emptiness/Spirit is ultimate truth. [20]
