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Quote by Gregory Bateson

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

Quote by Gregory Bateson

Book:Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry

Work

Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry

Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry delves into the intricate connections between communication and psychiatry, examining how social interactions shape mental health and psychiatric practices. The book offers insights into the importance of effective communication in the diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of mental health issues. more

Author

Gregory Bateson

Gregory Bateson was a prominent anthropologist whose research spanned across various fields such as culture, semiotics, systems theory, and cognitive science. His work has had a profound impact on interdisciplinary studies that followed. more

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“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.”

Matter Facts Levels Deals Environment Particular Behavior Conscious Economics Being True Instance Unconscious Organisms Sinking Pragmatic Generalities

Author:Gregory Bateson

“If a man achieves or suffers change in premises which are deeply embedded in his mind, he will surely find that the results of that change will ramify throughout his whole universe.”

Ifs Men Mind Whole Suffering Universe Results Achieve Premises Embedded

Book:Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology

Source: Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology

“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.”

May Mean Able Energy Differences Information Ready Making A Difference Transformed Units Pathways Implicit

Author:Gregory Bateson

“We are most of us governed by epistemologies that we know to be wrong”

Knows Epistemology

Book:Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology

Source: Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology

“But the myth of power is, of course, a very powerful myth, and probably most people in this world more or less believe in it. It is a myth, which, if everybody believes in it, becomes to that extent self-validating. But it is still epistemological lunacy and leads inevitably to various sorts of disaster.”

People Ifs World Believe Stills Self Courses Powerful This World Various Myth Disaster Very Powerful Lunacy

Author:Gregory Bateson

“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.”

Humans Art Goal Sleep Creation Activity Scientist Determined Branches Commerce Warfare Testing Pathways Human Activity Revision

Author:Gregory Bateson

“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."”

Knows Enough Able Courses Next Perception Series Next Time Components Accounting

Author:Gregory Bateson

“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.”

Way Prove Tests Finals Statements Predictions Generalization

Author:Gregory Bateson

“Let's not pretend that mental phenomena can be mapped on to the characteristics of billiard balls.”

Balls Characteristics

Book:Angels fear: towards an epistemology of the sacred

Source: Angels fear: towards an epistemology of the sacred

“If you are receptive and humble, mathematics will lead you by the hand. Again and again, when I have been at a loss how to proceed, I have just had to wait until I have felt the mathematics led me by the hand. It has led me along an unexpected path, a path where new vistas open up, a path leading to new territory, where one can set up a base of operations, from which one can survey the surroundings and plan future progress.”