Gregory Bateson

[gusl]

My uncle Duda has recommended an interesting author, Gregory Bateson. Like Douglas Hofstadter and David Berlinski, his ideas are flamingly interdisciplinary. It appears that he sides with anti-materialism (perhaps dualism), but the reviewers praised his logic, so it should be interesting. For more interesting interdisciplinary material, see edge.org

Comments

[pbrane.livejournal.com]

It appears that he sides with anti-materialism (perhaps dualism), but the reviewers praised his logic...

Hey! Are you backhandedly implying that anti-materialism is illogical? Chalmers was a mathematics grad student, and is *exquisitely* logical, and yet he calls himself a "naturalistic dualist". Harumph!

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

Not exactly. I half-intentionally (i.e. without my full deliberation, yet somewhat consciously)gave away that I sympathize with the materialists. I realize it's poor philosophy on my part to take a side without proof, but maybe it's through these games that we learn the most. Then again, I don't see why I can't be several philosophical personas. Sometimes I'll be devil's advocate, sometimes I'll be the extreme skeptic, sometimes I'll defend an ideology along with all of its problems. Sometimes I have trouble answering people who ask me what I *REALLY* think. I guess I'm a skeptic above all, who goes along with a changing set of unproven beliefs, and tries argue for them. I've heard that Miguel de Unamuno was a philosopher who had a similar case of "MPD".
I really enjoyed what I've read from Chalmers, so I'll probably read him again soon.

[onesoul.livejournal.com]

Bateson is one of my ALL time favorite authors. He is wonderful, and did so much with 2nd order theories as well as hypnosis in general. If you are looking for some good reads that manage to push your mind, dive into Bateson. *smile* One of my favorite books of his is, "Steps to an Ecology of Mind." Here is a great little piece from it:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/0226039056/reader/4/ref%3Dlib%5Frd%5FTT01/104-3817317-2695109

Enjoy!

Re:

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

What are 2nd order theories?
Btw, I didn't know you read my journal :-)

Re:

[onesoul.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, 2nd order in therapy is a bit different than the overall basics of second order. I'll give you the link for the basic 2nd order:

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SECORCYB.html

here is a link to Bateson's contribution:

http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/CSTHINK.html


Then within therapy, how I use it, is that it says we are a system, we are part of the process, and can not pretend or in any way be outside of those we interact with. The moment we are around them, we become part of them. This is basically saying, in therapy, don't pretend to be all knowing, objective, or anything else other than human, because really we are all in this together... client, therapist, and the system. It basically debunks most of what "therapy" is today, with reality.

*smile*
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/SECORCYB.html