There is a strong tendency in explanatory prose to invoke quantities of tension, energy, and whatnot to explain the genesis of pattern. I believe that all such explanations are inappropriate or wrong.

Quote by Gregory Bateson

Topics: Gregory Bateson Quotes

Members of weakly religious families get, of course, no religious training from any source outside...

Members of weakly religious families get, of course, no religious training from any source outside...

Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions.

Science, like art, religion, commerce, warfare, and even sleep, is based on presuppositions.

A major difficulty is that the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is partly...

A major difficulty is that the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is partly...

Logic can often be reversed, but the effect does not precede the cause.

Logic can often be reversed, but the effect does not precede the cause.

In the transmission of human culture, people always attempt to replicate, to pass on to...

In the transmission of human culture, people always attempt to replicate, to pass on to...

Synaptic summation is the technical term used in neurophysiology for those instances in which some...

Synaptic summation is the technical term used in neurophysiology for those instances in which some...

Interesting phenomena occur when two or more rhythmic patterns are combined, and these phenomena illustrate...

Interesting phenomena occur when two or more rhythmic patterns are combined, and these phenomena illustrate...

It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should...

It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should...

We do not know enough about how the present will lead into the future.

We do not know enough about how the present will lead into the future.

Language commonly stresses only one side of any interaction.

Language commonly stresses only one side of any interaction.

Official education was telling people almost nothing of the nature of all those things on...

Official education was telling people almost nothing of the nature of all those things on...

Rather, for all objects and experiences, there is a quantity that has optimum value. Above...

Rather, for all objects and experiences, there is a quantity that has optimum value. Above...

It is to the Riddle of the Sphinx that I have devoted fifty years of...

It is to the Riddle of the Sphinx that I have devoted fifty years of...

Numbers are the product of counting. Quantities are the product of measurement. This means that...

Numbers are the product of counting. Quantities are the product of measurement. This means that...

Logic is a poor model of cause and effect.

Logic is a poor model of cause and effect.

Every move we make in fear of the next war in fact hastens it.

Every move we make in fear of the next war in fact hastens it.

It is, I claim, nonsense to say that it does not matter which individual man...

It is, I claim, nonsense to say that it does not matter which individual man...

If we pursue this matter further, we shall be told that the stable object is...

If we pursue this matter further, we shall be told that the stable object is...

To think straight, it is advisable to expect all qualities and attributes, adjectives, and so...

To think straight, it is advisable to expect all qualities and attributes, adjectives, and so...

But epistemology is always and inevitably personal. The point of the probe is always in...

But epistemology is always and inevitably personal. The point of the probe is always in...