wrote:

> In article ,
> John Wilkins  wrote:
....
> >The phrase "Ghost in the machine" was coined by Arthur
Koestler in his
> >attack on physicalism in the philosophy of mind 
> ...
> 
> Actually, using www.xrefer.com and typing in the phrase, it turns out
> to have been coined by Gilbert Ryle, a philosopher, in 1949 (they cite
> the Oxford Companion to Philosophy.
> 
> Koestler wrote in 1967 and used Ryle's phrase.

Quite right, and I am ashamed to have forgotten Ryle. Damn, I even read
that book as an undergraduate...
> 
> >Keostler was a journalist who wrote philosophy and history rather well
> >to support his Lamarckian and vitalistic view of life.
> 
> This is relevant to the discussion, at least the vitalism part.

Emergentism (or rather, emergent evolution) in the 30s and 40s tended to
fall into a vitalistic approach, which is, according to Blitz, one of
the reasons why it fell into disfavour.

Koestler's views on holism and emergence are in _Janus: A Summing Up_,
which is a mixed bag of insight and folderol.
-- 
John Wilkins
DARK IN HERE, ISN'T IT?
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