Gregory Bateson
Gregory Bateson
Gregory Batesonwas an English anthropologist, social scientist, linguist, visual anthropologist, semiotician, and cyberneticist whose work intersected that of many other fields. In the 1940s he helped extend systems theory and cybernetics to the social and behavioral sciences. He spent the last decade of his life developing a "meta-science" of epistemology to bring together the various early forms of systems theory developing in different fields of science. His writings include Steps to an Ecology of Mindand Mind and Nature. Angels Fearwas...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth9 May 1904
Gregory Bateson quotes about
Members of weakly religious families get, of course, no religious training from any source outside the family.
Prediction can never be absolutely valid and therefore science can never prove some generalization or even test a single descriptive statement and in that way arrive at final truth.
We do not know enough about how the present will lead into the future. We shall never be able to say, "Ha! My perception, my accounting for that series, will indeed cover its next and future components," or "Next time I meet with these phenomena, I shall be able to predict their total course.
There are no monotone "values" in biology.
Pathology is a relatively easy thing to discuss, health is very difficult. This, of course, is one of the reasons why there is such a thing as the sacred, and why the sacred is difficult to talk about, because the sacred is peculiarly related to the healthy. One does not like to disturb the sacred, for in general, to talk about something changes it, and perhaps will turn it into a pathology.
Logic can often be reversed, but the effect does not precede the cause.
It is impossible, in principle, to explain any pattern by invoking a single quantity.
Life and 'Mind' are systemic processes.
Logic is a poor model of cause and effect.
The wise legislator will only rarely initiate a new rule of behaviour; more usually he will confine himself to affirming in law what has already become the custom of the people.
In the nature of the case, an explorer can never know what he is exploring until it has been explored.
Multiple descriptions are better than one.
Surrender to alcohol intoxication provides a partial and subjective shortcut to a more correct state of mind.
The processes of perception are inaccessible; only the products are conscious and, of course, it is the products that are necessary.