The Ghost in the Machine is a 1967 non-fiction work by Arthur Koestler. The title refers to British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's negative description of René Descartes' mind-body dualism. While himself rejecting what he refers as "crass dualism", Koestler is using a different approach, aiming at a more general explanatory principle, the hierarchical organization of life and the adaptability of living forms through a continuous exchange of energy and information.

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  • The Ghost in the Machine is a 1967 non-fiction work by Arthur Koestler. The title refers to British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's negative description of René Descartes' mind-body dualism. While himself rejecting what he refers as "crass dualism", Koestler is using a different approach, aiming at a more general explanatory principle, the hierarchical organization of life and the adaptability of living forms through a continuous exchange of energy and information. Following this principle down to its consequences, the book gets to a theme which has somehow never ceased to be of actuality, man's tendency towards self-destruction, which is reaching the height of its potential of expression in the nuclear arms arena. The book is particularly critical of B. F. Skinner's Behaviorist theory of psychology. One of the book's central concepts is that as the human brain has grown, it has built upon earlier, more primitive brain structures, and that these are the "ghost in the machine" of the title. Koestler's theory is that at times these structures can overpower cognitive logic, and are responsible for hate, anger and other such impulses.
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  • Print
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  • The Ghost in the Machine
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  • 1967 (xsd:integer)
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  • The Ghost in the Machine is a 1967 non-fiction work by Arthur Koestler. The title refers to British philosopher Gilbert Ryle's negative description of René Descartes' mind-body dualism. While himself rejecting what he refers as "crass dualism", Koestler is using a different approach, aiming at a more general explanatory principle, the hierarchical organization of life and the adaptability of living forms through a continuous exchange of energy and information.
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  • The Ghost in the Machine
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  • The Ghost in the Machine
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