A Recursive Vision: Ecological Understanding and Gregory Bateson

Contents......Page 6
Acknowledgments......Page 10
A Brief Biographical Chronology of Gregory Bateson......Page 12
A Note on Reference Style......Page 16
Introduction......Page 22
Bateson and the Environment......Page 23
Bateson and the Science of Ecology......Page 24
'Ecological Understanding Must Be Ecological'......Page 26
Epistemology and Recursion......Page 27
Presentation of Ideas......Page 28
Chapter Outline......Page 30
Holism......Page 33
1 The Youngest Bateson......Page 35
W.B. ... the Eminent Anti-Darwinist......Page 36
Like Father Like Son?......Page 37
Between Art and Science......Page 39
Fieldwork and Margaret Mead......Page 40
Naven: The Observer Observing......Page 42
Steps: Battling for an Epistemology......Page 44
Ecology: A 'Post-Political' Movement?......Page 48
Conclusion......Page 51
2 A Theory of Consciousness......Page 54
Mutual Casual Connectedness......Page 56
The 'Logic' of Addiction......Page 57
Alcoholism and Control......Page 58
The 'Power' of Prayer......Page 60
Learning as Causality......Page 62
Epistemology and Social Power......Page 63
Some Difficulties of Interpretation......Page 64
A Theory of Consciousness......Page 67
Pattern and Gestalt......Page 70
Summary: Alternative Causality......Page 73
3 The Map Is Not the Territory: Time, Change, and Survival......Page 76
Indeterminacy......Page 79
Field Theory: Whitehead and Lewin......Page 81
Time and Change......Page 82
Atomic Succession: Whitehead's Pattern of Events......Page 84
The Map Is Not the Territory......Page 86
'Time Binding': Mapping and Indexing......Page 87
How Mind Is Part of the System It Seeks to Explain......Page 89
Problems of Biperspectivism......Page 91
Mind and Information......Page 93
Adaptation and Survival......Page 95
4 Metaphors for Living Forms......Page 100
Ideas – 'My Fortification'......Page 102
Hopscotch – a Matrix of Ideas......Page 104
Radical Software......Page 107
The Family – a Circle and Its Presence......Page 110
Metalogues......Page 111
Working the Metaphor......Page 112
Parables: Stories for Evoking Gestalt......Page 118
5 Cybernetics – Janus of Modernity......Page 122
Negentropy and the Arrow of Time......Page 125
Ross Ashby's Homeostat: Adaptive Feedback......Page 127
Redefining Noise and Error......Page 132
The Foundational Science......Page 135
A Brief Ceremony – 1984......Page 137
6 Communication and Its Embodiment......Page 141
The Body-Mind Problem......Page 143
Context as a Framing Device......Page 146
Coding: Analogue and Digital......Page 148
Codes as Rules......Page 150
Double Bind: The Implicit and the Explicit in Communicative Rules......Page 153
Redundancy and Metaphor......Page 158
7 Mind and Nature......Page 164
Animal and Interspecies Communication......Page 165
Evolutionary Coding......Page 169
Reflexiveness in Evolution......Page 174
'Time Grains'......Page 175
Darwinism versus Co-evolution......Page 179
The Turning Point......Page 183
8 Recursion......Page 187
Difference – a Truly Psychological Concept......Page 192
Abduction as Qualitative Method......Page 196
Modularities......Page 199
Autopoiesis: The Bootstrapping of Form......Page 202
Self-Referencing Feedback......Page 203
Recursive Fittedness – a New Beginning......Page 205
Biological Autonomy......Page 207
9 The Pattern Which Connects......Page 211
Bateson and Environmental Activism......Page 213
'Blaming Our Silly Selves'......Page 215
Ecological Understanding – Ethics or Aesthetics?......Page 217
The Processes of Perception......Page 218
Perception as an Ecological Phenomenon......Page 223
Laws of Form: A Logic of Recursive Unity......Page 226
From Active Perception to Active Aesthetics......Page 228
10 Visions of Unity......Page 231
'Last Lecture'......Page 235
Transcendent Mind......Page 237
Faith and Its Defences......Page 239
Gaps and Connectivity......Page 241
Self and System......Page 243
A Topological Picture of Recursive Coupling......Page 246
A Recursive Vision......Page 251
Appendix 1: Two Models of Ecology Compared: Odum and Bateson......Page 254
Appendix 2: Models of Recursive Hierarchy: Logical Types and Double Bind......Page 262
Appendix 3: Bateson's Model of Co-evolution......Page 271
Appendix 4: Scan, Interface, and Double Vision: A Model for Perceiving Ecological Wholes......Page 280
Notes......Page 286
Select Bibliography......Page 340
Author Index......Page 362
Subject Index......Page 366