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Gregory Bateson

Gregory Bateson Quotes

Anthropologist

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Famous Gregory Bateson Quotes

“No organism can afford to be conscious of matters with which it could deal at unconscious levels. Broadly, we can afford to sink those sorts of knowledge which continue to be true regardless of changes in the environment, but we must maintain in an accessible place all those controls of behavior which must be modified for every instance. The economics of the system, in fact, pushes organisms toward sinking into the unconscious those generalities of relationship which remain permanently true and toward keeping within the conscious the pragmatic of particular instances.”

MatterFactsLevelsDealsEnvironmentParticularBehaviorConsciousEconomicsBeing TrueInstanceUnconsciousOrganismsSinkingPragmaticGeneralities
Author:Gregory Bateson
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“Desired substance, things, patterns, or sequences of experience that are in some sense "good" for the organism - items of diet, conditions of life, temperature, entertainment, sex, and so forth - are never such that more of the something is always better than less of the something. 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.”

ValuesFallSexConditionsObjectsSimplicityPatternsEntertainmentSubstanceDietsToxicQuantityOrganismsItemsSequenceDeprivedTemperatureVariablesOptimum
Author:Gregory Bateson
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