Every schoolboy knows about Tao

In the first chapter of Mind and Nature Bateson outlines a series of evidence (ironically titled "Every schoolboy knows..." (or should know...) which explicitly express a basis for an epistemology of living systems:

"By education most have been misled;

So they believe because they were so bred.

The priest continues what the nurse began,

And thus the child imposes on the man".

John Dryden, "The Hind and the Panther".

"Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions. It differs, however, from most other branches of human activity in that not only are the pathways of scientific thought determined by the presuppositions of the scientists but their goals are the testing and revision of old presuppositions and the creation of new."

• SCIENCE NEVER PROVES ANYTHING.

• THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY, AND THE NAME IS NOT THE THING NAMED.

• THERE IS NO OBJECTIVE EXPERIENCE.

• THE PROCESSES OF IMAGE FORMATION ARE UNCONSCIOUS.

• THE DIVISION OF THE PERCEIVED UNIVERSE INTO PORTS AND WHOLE IS CONVENIENT AND MAY BE NECESSARY, BUT NO NECESSITY DETERMINES HOW IT SHALL BE DONE.

• DIVERGENT SEQUENCES ARE UNPREDICTABLE.

• CONVERGENT SEQUENCES ARE PREDICTABLE.

• "NOTHING WILL COME OF NOTHING".

•  NUMBER IS DIFFERENT FROM QUANTITY.

• QUANTITY DOES NOT DETERMINE PATTERN.

• THERE ARE NO MONOTONE "VALUES" IN BIOLOGY.

• SOMETIMES SMALL IS BEATIFUL.

• LOGIC IS A POOR MODEL OF CAUSE AND EFFECT.

• CAUSALITY DOES NOT WORK BACKWARD.

• LANGUAGE COMMONLY STRESSES ONLY ONE SIDE OF ANY INTERACTION.

• "STABILITY" AND "CHANGE" DESCRIBE PARTS OF OUR DESCRIPTIONS.

Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson