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The wise legislator will only rarely initiate a new rule of behaviour more usually he will confine himself to affirming in law what has already become the custom of the people.

Gregory Bateson

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Gregory Bateson
Age: 76 †
Born: 1904
Born: May 9
Died: 1980
Died: July 4
Anthropologist
Biologist
Film Director
Linguist
Philosopher
Psychologist
Semiotician
Sociologist
Grantchester
Cambridgeshire
Become
Behaviour
People
Customs
Rarely
Legislator
Rule
Confine
Usually
Affirming
Already
Initiate
Wise
Legislators
Law
Custom

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A man walking is never in balance, but always correcting for imbalance.
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But epistemology is always and inevitably personal. The point of the probe is always in the heart of the explorer: What is my answer to the question of the nature of knowing?
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The creature that wins against its environment destroys itself.
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Logic cannot model causal systems, and paradox is generated when time is ignored [as in logic].
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Those who lack all idea that it is possible to be wrong can learn nothing except know-how.
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It is of first-class importance that our answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx should be in step with how we conduct our civilisation, and this should in turn be in step with the actual workings of living systems.
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Every move we make in fear of the next war in fact hastens it.
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A major difficulty is that the answer to the Riddle of the Sphinx is partly a product of the answers that we already have given to the riddle in its various forms.
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We can never be quite clear whether we are referring to the world as it is or to the world as we see it.
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We are most of us governed by epistemologies that we know to be wrong
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Life and 'Mind' are systemic processes.
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There are no monotone values in biology.
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Still more astonishing is that world of rigorous fantasy which we call mathematics.
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Let's not pretend that mental phenomena can be mapped on to the characteristics of billiard balls.
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Yes, metaphor. That's how the whole fabric of mental interconnections holds together. Metaphor is right at the bottom of being alive.
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Surrender to alcohol intoxication provides a partial and subjective shortcut to a more correct state of mind.
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We are discovering today that several of the premises which are deeply ingrained in our way of life are simply untrue and become pathogenic when implemented with modern technology.
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After mastery comes artistry and not before.
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Multiple descriptions are better than one.
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Information is a difference that makes a difference.
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