What pattern connects the crab to the lobster
and the orchid to the primrose,
and all the four of them to me?
And me to you?
And all the six of us to the amoeba in one direction
and to the schizophrenic in another?
Mind and Nature, 1979
Singular figure of the scientist, one that has made this kind of questions and much more singular person who devoted his life searching for answers. Gregory Bateson was this type of scientist: impatient with all academic forms, he devoted himself to mess up things rather than to order them. Bateson with his work forces us to rethink the whole, to relate what is theoretically correct relationship, leads us to a new and different perspective on things. "Draw the lines of an ecology of mind is to lay the foundations for a science that still does not exist as organic corpus of theory or knowledge," writes in the opening of Steps to an Ecology of Mind, his most known and appreciated book. And that is precisely what Bateson tried to do for a lifetime: to put on the table of the most seemingly unrelated questions, like "bilateral symmetry of an animal, the structural arrangement of the leaves in a plant, the subsequent amplification of the arms race the practices of courtship, the nature of the game, the grammar of a sentence, the mystery of biological evolution and the crisis in which we found the relationship between man and environment. " This is the core, the heart of the search for Bateson: the attempt to discover, describe, systematize the "pattern that connects."
Multifaceted figure of a scholar, he devoted himself during life to multiple disciplines: biology, anthropology, psychology, ethology, so as to make himself the author of a singularly innovative thinking. The formation of Bateson owes much to his father. Biologist William Bateson was a very well known, to him it must, inter alia, the term "genetics". Gregory Bateson graduated in natural sciences and, as in the best traditions in the footsteps of Darwin reached the Galapagos to seal his apprenticeship biologist. Later he devoted himself to anthropology and met and married Margaret Mead with which he led the fieldwork in the island of Bali. Collaborated with the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Clinic in San Francisco for a study of the psychiatric community. In the years that followed deepened communication studies, addressing in particular the behavior and communication of otters and seals in contexts of play. Created its own working group with whom he developed the theory of "double bind." The findings of this group, particularly on family communication and the genesis of schizophrenia will be very important and will inspire more research, laying the foundations of family systems therapy. Its vicissitudes sospinsero him down to Hawaii where he worked on the language of dolphins. All these experiences led him to mature his ideas and then condense to an Ecology of mind that will bring the first official recognition. And hence its tremendous ability to relate the various fields of its object of study to make a figure so exceptional.
In 1972, Bateson published his most famous book, Steps to an ecology of mind, which sought to rethink the human condition. There had thickened studies of a life, his reflections on schizophrenia, on animal and human communication and cybernetics. It is in this book that deals with those who will be the themes of his thought, an attempt to delineate the "connecting structure" that underlies all his work. Research that attempts to systematize definitely Bateson in Mind and Nature published in 1979, a few months before his death. Bateson for each biological organism has the ability to learn, think and decide. If epistemology is the way in which individual organisms and assemblies of living organisms know, think and decide, then everything is epistemology, all is process knowledge. Bateson has devoted his life to finding a property that connects the man to other living organisms and living organisms to the environment. Enemy of all rigid dualism, it was increasingly convinced of the centrality of the relationship. Liquid Descartes because his allegations were "simply shattered the universe in which we live." For Bateson the self is not separated from others and from the context, everything is interconnected, interdependent. Man is part of the whole, it is a key component, an organic piece of the universe. And, like any part of a cybernetic epistemology and is able to influence anything, but is not able to control everything. Along with a number of scholars such as Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Claude Shannon, Warren McCulloch and others from life to "Macy Conferences" and cybernetic theory that attempts to explain the behavior and dynamics of complex biological systems. Bateson was defined above all a "stir of ideas," but it was also the author of some real breakthroughs as the theory of "double bind" that has permission to look at it another way the problem of schizophrenia. In the latter part of his life, when he was seriously ill, he wrote, along with Mary Catherine, daughter, where angels hesitate. The unity of nature which he allegedly opened up the field to a series of reflections that were the land par excellence of religion. "His thoughts," wrote the daughter, "was understandable perhaps only with the kind of metaphors to which we have used the religion." Atheist training, Bateson realized that he was venturing into dangerous territory, where it was easy to be misunderstood. Obviously, the scientist will be approached with caution, on the other hand, his work had led him to ask questions before which warned of having to field a wisdom and courage of a different type from that followed until then.
That was a major turning of its path of man and scientist
Multifaceted figure of a scholar, he devoted himself during life to multiple disciplines: biology, anthropology, psychology, ethology, so as to make himself the author of a singularly innovative thinking. The formation of Bateson owes much to his father. Biologist William Bateson was a very well known, to him it must, inter alia, the term "genetics". Gregory Bateson graduated in natural sciences and, as in the best traditions in the footsteps of Darwin reached the Galapagos to seal his apprenticeship biologist. Later he devoted himself to anthropology and met and married Margaret Mead with which he led the fieldwork in the island of Bali. Collaborated with the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Clinic in San Francisco for a study of the psychiatric community. In the years that followed deepened communication studies, addressing in particular the behavior and communication of otters and seals in contexts of play. Created its own working group with whom he developed the theory of "double bind." The findings of this group, particularly on family communication and the genesis of schizophrenia will be very important and will inspire more research, laying the foundations of family systems therapy. Its vicissitudes sospinsero him down to Hawaii where he worked on the language of dolphins. All these experiences led him to mature his ideas and then condense to an Ecology of mind that will bring the first official recognition. And hence its tremendous ability to relate the various fields of its object of study to make a figure so exceptional.
In 1972, Bateson published his most famous book, Steps to an ecology of mind, which sought to rethink the human condition. There had thickened studies of a life, his reflections on schizophrenia, on animal and human communication and cybernetics. It is in this book that deals with those who will be the themes of his thought, an attempt to delineate the "connecting structure" that underlies all his work. Research that attempts to systematize definitely Bateson in Mind and Nature published in 1979, a few months before his death. Bateson for each biological organism has the ability to learn, think and decide. If epistemology is the way in which individual organisms and assemblies of living organisms know, think and decide, then everything is epistemology, all is process knowledge. Bateson has devoted his life to finding a property that connects the man to other living organisms and living organisms to the environment. Enemy of all rigid dualism, it was increasingly convinced of the centrality of the relationship. Liquid Descartes because his allegations were "simply shattered the universe in which we live." For Bateson the self is not separated from others and from the context, everything is interconnected, interdependent. Man is part of the whole, it is a key component, an organic piece of the universe. And, like any part of a cybernetic epistemology and is able to influence anything, but is not able to control everything. Along with a number of scholars such as Norbert Wiener, John von Neumann, Claude Shannon, Warren McCulloch and others from life to "Macy Conferences" and cybernetic theory that attempts to explain the behavior and dynamics of complex biological systems. Bateson was defined above all a "stir of ideas," but it was also the author of some real breakthroughs as the theory of "double bind" that has permission to look at it another way the problem of schizophrenia. In the latter part of his life, when he was seriously ill, he wrote, along with Mary Catherine, daughter, where angels hesitate. The unity of nature which he allegedly opened up the field to a series of reflections that were the land par excellence of religion. "His thoughts," wrote the daughter, "was understandable perhaps only with the kind of metaphors to which we have used the religion." Atheist training, Bateson realized that he was venturing into dangerous territory, where it was easy to be misunderstood. Obviously, the scientist will be approached with caution, on the other hand, his work had led him to ask questions before which warned of having to field a wisdom and courage of a different type from that followed until then.
That was a major turning of its path of man and scientist
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