Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences) New edition Edition

by Gregory Bateson (Author), Alfonso Montuori (Foreword)

21 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-1572734340

ISBN-10: 1572734345

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A re-issue of Gregory Bateson's classic work. It summarizes Bateson's thinking on the subject of the patterns that connect living beings to each other and to their environment.

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Product details

Series: Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences
Paperback: 220 pages
Publisher: Hampton Press; New edition edition (August 1, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1572734345
ISBN-13: 978-1572734340
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 21 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #503,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #196 in Epistemology (Books)
- #504 in Epistemology Philosophy
- #1642 in Political Philosophy (Books)

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Roots of Process Thinking

May 17, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

It's like this came to the surface briefly in the late 70's, and was absorbed into the tsunami of growth in cybernetics, anthropology and other disciplines (not to mention marketing) since then, so that most lay people don't even know it exists. Mind, nature, life, evolution, science, society: it's all just a big fully and deeply interconnected process, and Bateson provides the lens to see it with.

5 people found this helpful

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Mark B. Friedman

That reminds me of a story...

July 16, 2007

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a work of an exceptional and original genius.
"Mind and Nature" is both Gregory Bateson's most accessible and most difficult book. It is a deeply personal exploration of what has come to be called cognitive science from a brilliant man and great scientist who pioneered a deep synthesis of anthropology, language and communications, and biology over the course of a remarkable life. Be advised that it is more of a progress report on a lifelong quest than a coherent whole. If you have an enduring interest in cognitive science and you haven't read Bateson, you don't know what you are missing.
Bateson's starting point is, "How is it possible for the same evolutionary forces that shaped our survival as a species failed to shape our minds?" The answer, of course, is that it is not. It ought to be self-evident that the phenomenon that we call the "mind" is shaped by natural selection. Bateson does not claim to understand all the implications of this empiricist stance, his focus instead is on how to start asking the right questions about the mind and cognition. For instance: What is learning? What is play? (Is it true that only mammals play? Why is that?) If you think about it, these are phenomenon central to the human experience and there is no one that discussed them more insightfully than Bateson does here (and in "Steps...".
I find myself returning to this book again and again over the years. Its effect on me has been profound. I am sure I will never understand more than a small part of what Bateson is trying to tell me here, but the feeble fraction that I do understand is remarkable. The wisdom that animates this book has shaped many of the foundational notions of my life. It is full of life lessons.
And that reminds me of a story about the time I incorporated one of Bateson's teaching parables from this book into a speech I had to give not too long ago....

29 people found this helpful

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A. Don

Pretty fair to say that this is my favourite non-fiction ...

August 2, 2014

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Pretty fair to say that this is my favourite non-fiction book of all time. Bateson's oeuvre spans all the knowledge disciplines I have ever been interested in - art, science, psychology, anthropology, communication, animal behaviour, education...Epistemology qua cybernetics. Sure, it's old now, and some of the statements have been overtaken by recent developments in science, but the thinking is still sound, still relevant for humans in the world today..

4 people found this helpful

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DDot

Great read!

April 13, 2019

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This was assigned to me for my neuro-linguistic programming class. It was so interesting.

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John Auker

Five Stars

June 22, 2015

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

Quite simply one of the best minds of the twentieth century

2 people found this helpful

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chung hsieh

Five Stars

August 27, 2015

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

excellent!

One person found this helpful

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Rabe'

Five Stars

November 17, 2014

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Thank You

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x-plorer

The most important book on epistemology there is

August 18, 2005

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Gregory Bateson is one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century. This is one of his last books and it deals with matters of epistemology. The thinking preserved within its pages is profound yet most of the time down to earth. There Bateson parts company with most formal epistemologists, the majority of whom are utterly confused, at least in their way of exposition. You do not need to be an expert logician to understand Bateson's thinking; he is the expert and tutors you through the straights of Scylla and Charybdis with the outmost comfort and safety. From this fantastic journey you will definitively be enriched.

This book is one of his most important. It is a testament of his view of science and coming from a person who helped revolutionize more scientific fields than the average person has even heard of it should be taken seriously. In its pages Bateson tells us what science is and how it should be properly exercised. Given the confusion and nihilism that have followed on the pseudoscientific revolutions of postmodernism and decostructivism (read Focault, Derida or Judith Butler for instance) such readings are necessary if at times disturbing. Not all ways of doing science are equal and many of them are based on logical confusion. Bateson is clear on that point. On page 24 he tells us "Some tools of thought are so blunt that they are almost useless". Self-evident to most people this maxim needs to be restated and taken seriously, especially within the social sciences that have only succeeded in making minor steps since the time of Aristotle. In this book we learn the why of this unfortunate situation. The question is if anybody wants to listen...

Still Bateson is not in any way preaching like some untouchable headmaster, unlike many other philosophers of his rank (read Jerry Fodor for instance). He is aware of the difficulties and obstacles involved and most of the time keeps his voice low. He also is not a techno-freak like many of the newest cognitive scientists, modern rationalists or evolutionary psychologists though he is one of their intellectual fathers. Instead he often talks of the need of a holistic approach, of looking out for the pattern which connects mind to nature and nature to the universe, and warns against the dangers of degrading the ecosystem and turning our backs to the fellow living creatures of this, still wonderful, planet.

If you only read one book on the history of science or on epistemology make this one your choice. You wont regret it. It is a cybernetically quided misile which will hit you on the head, and change you forever. To the better that is.

35 people found this helpful

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Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences) New edition Edition

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