Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred [Hardcover]

Gregory Bateson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0025076701 | ISBN-13: 978-0025076709 | Publication Date: May 1987

Angels Fear is the final sustained thinking of the great Gregory Bateson, written in collaboration with his anthropologist daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson. Here we have set out before us Bateson's natural history of the relationship between ideas. This book incorporates writing by both father and daughter, including essays written by Gregory in the last years before his death. There are also conversations-Metalogues-written since then by Mary Catherine to convey the way the two might have worked together to forge the essays into a single work. Angels Fear is a unique demonstration of thinking in progress, playful and wide-ranging, an attempt by the Batesons to find a view of the mind and the universe that is neigher mechanistic nor supernatural

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Bateson was working on this book when he died in 1980 but was nowhere near completing it; his daughter added chapters and other material that she is careful to identify as her own. Those looking for a neat, logical chain of argument will not find it here. Bateson combines ideas from a wide range of sourcescybernetics, communication theory, Jungian psychology, biology, philosophy, evolution theory, ethics, etc.in an attempt to bridge the gap between mind and matter, to present a unified view of nature and man. The discussion is suggestive but lacking in focus. Bateson's fans will love this; others may feel confirmed in their belief that his most important contribution lies elsewherein his theory of the "double bind." Leon H. Brody, U.S. Office of Personnel Management Lib., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Macmillan Pub Co (May 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0025076701
• ISBN-13: 978-0025076709
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,014,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

87 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique collaboration and a new approach to religion, September 28, 2000

By 

"gnox" (Manitoulin Island, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred (Paperback)

Gregory Bateson is well known, among those with the perseverance to wrestle through his very compact prose, for his highly original synthesis of cybernetics, biology, anthropology and -- above all -- epistemology. Near the end of his one book written with a general audience in mind (Mind and Nature), he mentions his intention to continue his explorations into the realms of the sacred and the aesthetic. By the time of his death in 1980 he had written several drafts and discussed the project in depth with his daughter Mary Catherine Bateson, an investigator of great insight in her own right and a better writer than Gregory's devotion to formal rigor allowed him to be. This book is the end result of that collaboration, which Mary completed in 1986. Those familiar with Gregory's work will find some of his familiar themes explored in somewhat more accessible terms, along with some unexpected new ideas. As with his earlier works, Bateson often has to redefine some familiar words, and introduce new usages for others, which makes reading him a struggle, but a rewarding struggle in the long run. Those familiar with Mary Catherine's work will not be disappointed either. Her summarizing chapter which pulls together the various strands of the book and of her father's thought is a masterpiece of synthesis in its own right. And this book, which is above all about *relationships* at every level from the cellular to the cultural to the religious, is a fascinating record of the very human relationship between father and daughter. Like all of the elder Bateson's work, this one will take some time to digest. How much have I learned from it about "the epistemology of the sacred"? I expect it will take years to find out, and that I'll be revisiting this book many times while its implications work themselves out. As G.B. said, Life is a game whose purpose is discovering the rules. This volume is a voyage of discovery.

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars READ THIS BOOK, November 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Angels Fear: Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred (Paperback)

This is a great introduction to the ideas of Gregory Bateson, one of the most important thinkers of our times. He is able to bridge the gap between our ideas about a materialistic world and concepts of mind. He said that Western science did not explain mind, it explained mind away.

Anyone who feels that there is more to life than logic and science, but who doesn't feel comfortable with every new age quack idea, should read this book. Bateson's thesis is that aesthetics, beauty, and the sacred are as valid as ways of knowing as logic and science are, and he can back that up with real ideas about the real world.