Philosophy of Zettelkasten: What is the Ghost in the Box?

System · December 2022

Philosophy of Zettelkasten: What is the Ghost in the Box?

A detailed exploration of Luhmann's ZK note number 9/8,3 and what the notion of the 'ghost in the box' could mean.

emps · December 2022

And perhaps it is not yet the time to answer the question what this ghost is

Why not. This ghost is an amalgamation of your past selves (past thinking habits) that were partially imprinted on the structure of ZK while you've composed the notes.
The reason why others don't recognize the value of your ZK is exactly the same reason why any source of information might be useless: the lack of a proper background (the knowledge that your past selves have had).

In the spirit of Luhmann or with Luhmann’s hypothetical intention in mind?

Ancient Greeks and Romans thought that when one properly emulates god, one becomes its incarnation.
If you fight like a complete bastard you become Mars. Roman triumphator was clothed like Jupiter, driven in the proper chariot and regarded by others as a personification of Jupiter on Earth. It wasn't a show - he actually became (some part of) Jupiter. Triumphator even had a special slave that rode with him in the chariot and whispered "you're not god". Probably because triumphators tended to be carried away by their holyness and required a reminder that the incarnation was temporary.
If I'm not mistaken, the process was originally called apotheosis (modern meaning of this term is different - "glorification of rulers", but it was altered by Christianity in about 2-4 AD).

So when one acts like Luhmann, one becomes Luhmann. Prayers might (or might not) be optional.

edit: typos, clarity

GeoEng51 · December 2022

@emps said:
So when one acts like Luhmann, one becomes Luhmann. Prayers might (or might not) be optional.

Haha!

autonomygaps · January 2023

I think that Luhmann is clearly playing on a rich ambiguity in the German language: "Geist" means not only "ghost/spook" but also "mind" and everything mental (even mental health or "state of mind" = Geisteszustand). In addition, it can be translated as "Spirit" in the sense of the "spirit of the age". In philosophy (my field), "Geist" is strongly associated with Hegel. His Phänomenologie des Geistes was once translated as "Phenomenology of Mind" but is not standardly translated as "Phenomenology of Spirit". But for Hegel – and Luhmann would have clearly been playing on this – "Spirit" is a very rich concept, referring to all aspects of culture, thought, practice, and more. So, in this passage, Luhmann is highlighting the absurdity of thinking that you can see his ideas by looking at the Zettelkästen. It would be like looking at the brain and expecting to see thoughts, or looking at a chessboard and thinking that the game is in the pieces of carved wood on a checkerboard.

Sascha · January 2023

So, in this passage, Luhmann is highlighting the absurdity of thinking that you can see his ideas by looking at the Zettelkästen. It would be like looking at the brain and expecting to see thoughts, or looking at a chessboard and thinking that the game is in the pieces of carved wood on a checkerboard.

Pretty similar to the thinking behind software agnosticism.

rl911 · January 2023

Luhmann :

Ghost in the box? Viewers come. They get to see everything and nothing but that - like in a porn film. And the disappointment is correspondingly high.

Zettelkasten II Zettel 9/8,3
Geist im Kasten? Zuschauer kommen. Sie bekommen alles zu sehen, und nichts als das – wie beim Pornofilm. Und entsprechend ist die Enttäuschung.

rl911 · January 2023

which closes the circle again ... you should not only read the rss-feed

chrisaldrich · October 2023

With Hallowe'en just around the corner, I'm reminded that there are "other" versions of Geist im kasten 👻🗃️:

Content warning: paper-based zettelkasten nightmares.

https://i0.wp.com/boffosocko.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Ghostbusters-card-catalog.gif?resize=635,270&ssl=1

harr · February 17

Ryle is a very plausible candidate. "Ghost in the box" as word play on "Ghost in the machine" makes sense, if we look at this excerpt from Gilbert Ryle's The Concept of Mind (1949), chapter 1 Descartes' Myth, section (2) The Absurdity of the Official Doctrine (emphasis mine):

I shall often speak of [the official theory], with deliberate abusiveness, as ‘the dogma of the Ghost in the Machine. I hope to prove that it is entirely false, and false not in detail but in principle. It is not merely an assemblage of particular mistakes. It is one big mistake and a mistake of a special kind. It is, namely, a category-mistake. (…)
I must first indicate what is meant by the phrase ‘Category-mistake’. This I do in a series of illustrations.
A foreigner visiting Oxford or Cambridge for the first time is shown a number of colleges, libraries, playing fields, museums, scientific departments and administrative offices. He then asks “But where is the University? I have seen where the members of the Colleges live, where the Registrar works, where the scientists experiment and the rest. But I have not yet seen the University in which reside and work the members of your University." It has then to be explained to him that the University is not another collateral institution, some ulterior counterpart to the colleges, laboratories and offices which he has seen. The University is just the way in which all that he has already seen is organized. When they are seen and when their coordination is understood, the University has been seen. His mistake lay in his innocent assumption that it was correct to speak of Christ Church, the Bodleian Library, the Ashmolean Museum and the University, to speak, that is, as if ‘the University’ stood for an extra member of the class of which these other units are members.

When Luhmann's visitors were disappointed, despite having seen everything, they could have made such a category-mistake. If we replace "University" with "Zettelkasten", we get:

The Zettelkasten is just the way in which all that he has already seen is organized. When they are seen and when their coordination is understood, the Zettelkasten has been seen.

That's very much how I would explain a Zettelkasten. The magic is how the parts are organized and coordinated. The magic is the workflow.

EDIT: Zettel 9/8,3 is part of Zettelkasten II's 9/8 branch, used by Luhmann to prepare the famous article Kommunikation mit Zettelkästen.

What is the article about? Luhmann approaches the Zettelkasten with communication theory ("kommunikationstheoretischen Ansatz"). He posits, that he communicates with the Zettelkasten, that it is a communication partner ("Kommunikationspartner").

Then he asks rhetorically: “How must the slip box be set up so that it acquires the corresponding communicative competence?” ("Wie muß der Zettelkasten angelegt sein, damit er entsprechende kommunikative Kompetenz erwirbt?") He answers with a description of his technique ("Technik").

What happens when you work with that technique for a while? “As a result of prolonged work with this technique, a kind of second memory emerges — an alter ego with which one can continuously communicate.” ("Als Ergebnis längerer Arbeit mit dieser Technik entsteht eine Art Zweitgedächtnis, ein alter Ego, mit dem man laufend kommunizieren kann.")

The article explains, what the visitors couldn't see in the box. As Ryle says, there is no "ghost" in the box/machine. There is no separate entity. There's only organisation and coordination.

Luhmann's article explains in detail how his Zettelkasten is organized and coordinated. He goes even a step further and describes it as communication partner. What makes the Zettelkasten a communication partner is not a ghost — it's a technique.

There is no ghost in the box.

Sukhovskii · February 27

My two cents on the topic in collage animation format

Sascha · February 27

The intro is just awesome.

For the content: Agreed.

harr · February 27

I'm still having nightmares from the halloween video. :-)

May I should build a ghost in the box to calm the nerves.

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