Bateson, Gregory (1904–1980)

Abstract Gregory Bateson was a British social scientist, who developed notions such as schismogenesis and double bind, formulated a holistic theory of mind, and was a pioneer of ecological thought. Although originally trained as an anthropologist, he engaged with several fields throughout his life, such as cybernetics and communication, psychology, ethology, and evolution – and he contributed significantly to many of these. In the later part of his life the seemingly haphazard pattern of interests started to coalesce into an overarching theory that Bateson designated by “Epistemology,” in which all organisms share the capacity of “mind,” redefined as the ability to perceive meaningful differences. However, dominant modes of thinking fail to grasp this situation of all living beings being connected in an “ecology of mind,” and this, in Bateson's view, has nefarious consequences, most prominently in the form of ecological crises.