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Gregory Bateson Biography

Gregory Bateson

Gregory Bateson (9 May 1904 – 4 July 1980) was 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 Mind (1972) and Mind and Nature (1979). Angels Fear (published posthumously in 1987) was co-authored by his daughter Mary Catherine Bateson.

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Gregory Bateson Quotes

If it were possible adequately to present the whole of a culture , stressing every aspect exactly as appears in the culture itself, no single detail would appear bizarre or strange or arbitrary to the reader, but rather the details would all appear natural and reasonable as they do to the natives who have lived all their lives within the culture.

Culture, Details, Natives, Reader, Stress, Whole

It takes two to know one.

Know, Knows, Takes, Two

Rather, for all objects and experiences, there is a quantity that has optimum value. Above that quantity, the variable becomes toxic. To fall below that value is to be deprived.

Deprived, Fall, Toxic, Value, Variable, Variables

Money is always transitively valued. More money is supposedly always better than less money.

Money, More Money, Supposedly, Transitively, Valued

Women watched for the spectacular performances of the men , and there can be no reasonable doubt that the presence of an audience is a very important factor in shaping the men's behavior. In fact, it is probable that the men are more exhibitionistic because the women admire their performances. Conversely, there can be no doubt that the spectacular behavior is a stimulus which summons the audience together, promoting in the women the appropriate behavior.

Behavior, Doubt, Exhibitionistic, Men, Spectacular, Together

A major difficulty is that the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is partly a product of the answers that we already have given to the riddle in its various forms.

Answers, Form, Given, Riddle, Sphinx

There are many matters and many circumstances in which consciousness is undesirable and silence is golden, so that secrecy can be used as a marker to tell us that we are approaching the holy.

Circumstances, Consciousness, Listening, Music, Silence, Used

Science sometimes improves hypotheses and sometimes disproves them. But proof would be another matter and perhaps never occurs except in the realms of totally abstract tautology. We can sometimes say that if such and such abstract suppositions or postulates are given, then such and such abstract suppositions or postulates are given, then such and such must follow absolutely. But the truth about what can be perceived or arrived at by induction from perception is something else again.

Matter, Perception, Perhaps, Postulates, Proof, Would Be

People are going to have to make themselves predictable, or the machines will get angry and kill them.

Angry, Kill, Machines, People, Predictable

But epistemology is always and inevitably personal. The point of the probe is always in the heart of the explorer: What is my answer to the question of the nature of knowing?

Answer, Answers, Heart, Knowing, Nature, Probe

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.

Discuss, Disturb, General, Healthy, Reason Why, Religion

Multiple descriptions are better than one.

Description, Descriptions, Multiple

The only way out is spiritual, intellectual, and emotional revolution in which, finally, we learn to experience first hand the interloping connections between person and person, organism and organism, action and consequence.

Emotional, Hands, Person, Spiritual, Way

Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions.

Art, Based, Like, Religion, Sleep, Warfare

It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should be in step with how we conduct our civilisation, and this should in turn be in step with the actual workings of living systems.

Actual, Answers, Civilisation, Class, Riddle, Sphinx

We can never be quite clear whether we are referring to the world as it is or to the world as we see it.

Clear, Quite, Referring, World

What we mean by information the elementary unit of information is a difference which makes a difference, and it is able to make a difference because the neural pathways along which it travels and is continually transformed are themselves provided with energy. The pathways are ready to be triggered. We may even say that the question is already implicit in them.

Differences, Making A Difference, Mean, Pathways, Ready, Travels

In no system which shows mental characteristics can any part have unilateral control over the whole. In other words, the mental characteristics of the system are imminent, not in some part, but in the system as a whole.

Characteristics, Imminent, Part, Show Me, Shows, Unilateral

It is impossible, in principle, to explain any pattern by invoking a single quantity.

Insomnia, Invoking, Pattern, Patterns, Principles, Single

Logic can often be reversed, but the effect does not precede the cause.

Cause, Causes, Doe, Often Is, Precede, Reversed

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