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Understanding Gregory Bateson and

Inquiring about Understanding Understanding

Mario Spiler

May 25, 2010

Gregory Bateson was the first to formulate the application of the theory of logical levels as a

mechanism in the behavioral (life) sciences. He derived it from the Theory of Logical Types by Bertrand

Russell and Alfred North Whitehead in their work on logic and mathematics. The organizing principle of

hierarchies into ―logical‖ levels refers to relationships between processes and phenomena. A system of

activity is always a subsystem embedded in another system. The relationship between systems produces

different ―levels‖ of processes relative to the system from which one is operating. Natural hierarchies and

levels of processes are evident in Nature, our brain structure and function, language and social systems.

This understanding has had profound significance in such fields as Cybernetics, Systems Theory, Family

Therapy, ecological thinking and Biosemiotics. Of particular interest are its application to the processes of

learning and change.

Bateson‘s genius became increasingly apparent in his ability to make original contributions across

disciplines while maintaining that he was ―not much concerned with truth about things—only with truths

about truths, with the natural history of descriptive propositions, information, injunctions, abstract

premises and the aggregate networks of such ideas.‖ (Bateson and Bateson, 1987, p. 157) Understanding

Bateson involves developing an astute awareness that meaning is contextual and that we cannot not have

our personal epistemology implicated in how we relate to others and the world around us.

Noel G. Charlton, PhD, has written the book, Understanding Gregory Bateson: Mind, Beauty,

and the Sacred Earth, published by SUNY Press in 2008. His perspective is based on a deep concern for
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the natural ecology of the world and a deep conviction of the religious significance for the whole of the

living planet. He situates the development of Bateson‘s ideas and relates them to other current ecological

thinkers. From the beginning pages right through to the very end, Charlton‘s book is a passionate

statement about his reverence for the living earth and his sense of urgency to take wise action to cure our

ecological malady.

In the first chapter of the book, the Introduction, Charlton begins by stating that the book is an

―accessible introduction‖ to the work of Gregory Bateson. (p. 1) In the following page, he sets himself the

task to help the reader ―penetrate Bateson‘s unique thought and to uncover the rare beauty of his writing.‖

(p. 2) He states, ―The book is, intentionally, a project in the application of philosophical thinking.

Bateson himself was always hesitant about recommending action. Nevertheless, our present situation of

ecological imbalance requires changes in human attitudes and early action. It may soon be too late for us

to act. Those who have the time and ability to research, study, and clarify the real situation of humanity in

its environment today have a duty to take the results of that study out into the world. This book is

intended to promote action.‖ He adds the pronouncement that, ―I believe (with Bateson in his later years)

that we need an essentially ―religious‖ response to our ecological crisis.‖ (p. 2)

Charlton introduces Bateson the man in Chapter 2, offering some background into the latter‘s life

experiences, the climate of his intellectual development and the influences of thinkers from different

disciplines. In Chapter 3, Charlton provides an explanation for Bateson‘s understanding of ―mind‖,

examines Bateson‘s criteria for ―mental‖ natural systems and his claims about information as the

―thinking‖ within systems, about learning and pattern among other ideas and concepts.

In Chapters 4 and 5 Charlton examines the aesthetic as ecological health in Bateson‘s claim that it

is this engagement which can offer us the ―grace‖ of ecological wisdom as worthy of respect, awe, and

reverence, and considers the living world without appealing to the supernatural. Chapter 6 provides a

closer examination of the concept of ―grace‖ and ―engagement‖. The work of Arnold Berleant is
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extensively examined and compared to Bateson‘s approach. Charlton ends the chapter by admitting that

―the idea of ―grace,‖ as the undeserved possibility of reaccessing ecological wisdom, emerges because

Bateson recognized that the interrelated mental systems of the world are the sacred.‖ (p. 158)

In preparation for the argument that makes up Chapter 7, Charlton makes the claim that ―the

opportunity of using religious process as a way of recovering sustainable living offers ―religious‖ hope.

(p. 158) He contends that Bateson‘s claims related to mind, grace and the sacred are metaphysical, in

which ―the love of wisdom is linked to the wisdom of love.‖ (p. 159) In support of his argument that ―we

can learn to see ourselves as living within the ecological God,‖ (p. 174) Charlton seeks the support of

Bateson‘s understanding from Spinoza, Arne Naess, James Lovelock, and Joanna Macy.

Charlton‘s final Chapter 8 outlines ―possibilities for appropriate human action‖ based on

Bateson‘s ideas and his ―half-articulated suggestion of a religious approach‖ to ecological issues. He

argues that Bateson provided a structure of thought we can use to enable us to move toward world-saving

action now. He takes it as Bateson‘s prescriptions for us to develop our awareness of ecological

relationship and transcend the self/world duality, and that ―we must recognize and develop reverence for

this sacred web of systemic relating.‖ (p. 209) Charlton‘s own prescription is ―to find ways of introducing

large numbers of people, in all walks of life, to the religious experiences of reverencing, venerating, and

feeling awe in the presence of the biological world.‖ (p. 209) His proposal is the following: ―The task is,

firstly, to convey to millions of people, worldwide, the understanding of interrelatedness that Bateson and

others have made available to us. Secondly, and very soon, large numbers of people must find confidence

and knowledge to undertake ecological action.‖ (p. 210) The book contains a very useful appendix of a

table of lifetime events and Bateson‘s publications in chronological order. This reference further

contextualizes the development of Bateson‘s ideas.

Charlton‘s personal website (http://noelgcharlton.info/) makes available some of his own

background, which was not part of the book, but appears in the document, ―Gregory Bateson – and how I
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came to know and understand his work‖. It recounts how he was academically influenced, starting at the

age of 59 with a four-week residential course with Theodore Roszak at Schumacher College in Devon,

England in 1991. As an ‗Honorary Research Assistant‘ at Lancaster University‘s Philosophy Department,

he completed his MA in 1994 in the area of Values and the Environment. The title of his Thesis was,

―Mind, systems and the sacred: A paradigm change in values for environmental survival?‖ He was

introduced to Gregory Bateson‘s work through his second course at the College in 1993 by Fritjof Capra

and Henryk Skolimowski, both whom had known Gregory Bateson personally. Skolimowski is credited

for influencing Charlton‘s academic development and view of Bateson by reporting that, ―I remember

him saying to me: ‗Never let anyone tell you that Gregory Bateson was not a deeply religious man!‘‖

Charlton has remained connected to Schumacher College ―as course facilitator for a wonderful

mixture of teachers of ecological wisdom‖ with his ―new awareness of Gregory Bateson‘s work and its

importance for our human understanding of how to live sustainably on planet Earth‖. He recalls coming

across Angel’s Fear after 1993 and Bateson‘s work becoming his main focus ever since. Charlton is very

clear about his ecological conviction: ―I am absolutely certain that his [Bateson‘s] wisdom is vitally

necessary for all of us as we struggle to learn how to live sustainably, ethically, reverently as members of

the living community of Earth.‖ Charlton‘s academic interest in Gregory Bateson continued and ―gelled‖

into a PhD and subsequently into the present book under review.

In the abstract to his presentation, ―Gregory Bateson as Religious Monist: links with Gaia Theory,

Theology and the Living Earth‖, at the Centennial Copenhagen Bateson Symposium 2005, Charlton

stated, ―I will argue for the view that Bateson‘s later work offers a new understanding of the unity of the

living world, of the meaning of ‗the sacred‘ and of the ‗grace‘ that could form the basis of a new and

unifying philosophy or ‗religion‘. This would enhance sustainability and offer a new (and very old)

understanding of human life in membership of the living community of Earth.‖

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The above background provides a meaningful dimension with which to better understand Noel

Charlton, how the ideas for his book came into fruition, the impact it has had on his academic pursuits

and the significance of his life‘s conviction to contribute to our ecology in a positive way. It is regrettable

that he did not include this background in his book. One can well sympathize with his acknowledgement

of Bateson and the significance of his ideas, as an ―inadequately known‖ thinker. Considering how little

known Charlton himself is, adding his personal statement from his website would have greatly enhanced

his book. One can only hope that future editions follow this route.

Considering the significance of Bateson‘s ideas and their impact across many disciplines, it is

understandable to claim, as Charlton does, that Bateson should be better known and that more effort

should be made to ensure this occurs. However, it is unclear what the author uses as a basis of comparison

or means to measure Bateson‘s popularity and the accessibility of his work. Charlton himself states he

was provided with copies of Bateson‘s 228 publications from several institutional and educational sources

as part of his research. (P. ix) As an appendix to this review, I have made available a list of books by

Gregory Bateson, a list of books about Batson‘s work, and articles published commemorating his

Centennial in 1994.

Understanding Gregory Bateson fits into the larger discussion of our global ecological crisis.

However, although Charlton argues for the religious approach to ecology, he does not discuss religion or

morality as being biologically-based related to the field of Sociobiology. According to Charlton,

Bateson‘s thinking ―has crucially important advice for us all as we confront escalating environmental

problems.‖ (p. 1) Considering Charlton‘s claim that his ―book offers an accessible introduction to the

work‖ (P. 1) of Bateson, one might mistakenly get the impression from his emphasis on the religious

attitude needed to approach ecology of the planet that Bateson was mostly concerned with environmental

issues. Interest in Bateson‘s work has enjoyed a following from different approaches to cybernetic
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epistemology related to culture, biology ecology, and most recently, the humanistic study of nature and in

natural sciences as biosemiotics.

Charlton first tells us that the book is an ―accessible introduction‖ to Gregory Bateson and his

work. He then admits that it is ―a project in the application of philosophical thinking‖. Considering his

heavy emphasis on adopting a religious attitude in how we approach our current ecological crisis, one

begins to appreciate early in the book that Charlton has a much larger agenda than just introducing

Bateson‘s work and understanding his ideas. At the end of Chapter 2, Charlton states that ―if we can learn

to reengage with the beauty of the natural (including the human), reengage with the aesthetic, to ―walk in

beauty,‖ then we may be enabled to receive a grace that would permit the recovery of a sense of the world

as sacred. To examine this claim and to set out the creative responses it could enable for us is the aim of

this book.‖ (P. 30)

There seems to be a definite break in the natural flow of the book in Chapter 5, with regards to

extending Bateson‘s ideas when Charlton introduces an extended discussion of Arnold Berleant and other

thinkers. Bateson‘s work seems to gradually take a back seat from that point, to his real argument that

ecology is a religious matter worthy of devising environmental advocacy.

Charlton provides us with a particular way of introducing his topic as an understanding of

Gregory Bateson. The ambiguity of the use of ―topic‖ purposely blurs the boundary of ―understanding‖

between Bateson the ‗person‘, Bateson‘s ‗way of thinking,‘ and the process of understanding both. The

background provided by Charlton to show that influenced Bateson‘s development of his ideas is treated as

given, as a historical record to be accepted as authoritative rather than as having been authored just as

Charlton has authored his version of Bateson‘s life and work as a document to be equally accepted as

authoritative. The question posed here is, ―How much can an individual reveal of their uniqueness that is

glossed over yet proposing it as separate issue and disconnected from the topic of discussion?‖ One has to

wonder the extent to which Charlton can claim to provide an understanding of Bateson without also
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acknowledging that it is his understanding and how that will impact those who know and don‘t know

Gregory Bateson and his ideas. Considering Charlton‘s definite ‗religious‘ agenda, will likely mislead the

reader at least at the introductory level about Bateson and his ideas. One has to also wonder how much

Charlton is invested in his ‗religious‘ ecological proposal to disregard

Bateson explored the notion that as mental processes, we are part of an aggregate of a larger mind

that we cannot set ourselves apart and examine it from the outside. There is an inevitable recursivity that

needs to be admitted and incorporated as we participate in its enactment. Implicating my personal

epistemology in this review, I would be tempted to rename Carlton‘s book as ―Noel Charlton‘s

Understanding of Gregory Bateson‖. If we are to remain consistent, I would title this review as ―My

understanding of Charlton‘s understanding of Bateson‖. Perhaps this points to a complexity and eventual

infinite regress and could lead to such questions as ―Where does understanding originate?‖ and ―How do

we address what is to be considered an adequate ‗understanding‘ of a topic?‖

These questions lead me in a different direction than I originally intended. I find myself becoming

curious about how much we can understand another from what we make available for examination. How

do we explore our material and decide what is ‗legitimate‘ from what is ‗unacceptable‘ for examination

from the pool of available material?

Following Socrates‘ dictum that a fully examined life cannot be lived and an unexamined life is

not worth living, perhaps we need to address the distinction we draw between the need to know and the

need not to know and value relevance over quantity. Instead of looking at how many of Bateson‘s works

we can examine, we could more fruitfully explore relevant themes through which we connect to Bateson

as individuals, as communities, species, and what connects us all. As Charlton made the effort to

articulate and reveal Bateson‘s relevance to him and its importance to his concerns, we might similarly

admit to this review as an attempt to explore and examine what is relevant and important about Charlton‘s
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book. You, the reader, are equally invited and encouraged to enter the recursive process of participating in

a similar process of inquiry and unveil what is relevant and important to you about this review.

Charlton‘s book is relevant to my interest in Creative Inquiry. It has made me question my

assumptions and the reasoning for whether it is a book I would recommend. My recommendation of

Understanding Gregory Bateson is based its use as an example which demonstrates much potential for

discussions on Bateson‘s ideas, as well as ways of knowing, understanding and being religious. One

could argue that Charlton‘s understanding of Bateson‘s ideas to the degree that he claims, is misleading,

otherwise, he would have either shown a greater effort in reflecting about his own assumptions or

admitted to his greater agenda of using Bateson to justify his religious passion for the ecological world

crisis we face.

I would like to add one last point. In their edited book, Ways of Being Religious (Streng, Lloyd

and Allen 1973), the authors provide a working definition of ‗religion‘ by first asking four questions in

order to become conscious of our preconceptions:

1. Does your definition reduce religion to what you happen to be acquainted with by accident of

birth and socialization? (P. 2)

2. Does your definition reflect a bias on your part—positive or negative—toward religion as a

whole, or toward a particular religion? (P. 3)

3. Does your definition limit religion to what is has been in the past, and nothing else, or does

your definition make it possible to speak of emerging forms of religion? (P. 4)

4. Does your definition have sufficient precision? (P. 5)

The definition they offer is as follows: Religion as a means toward ultimate transformation. With this in

mind, we can now contextualize Gregory Bateson‘s and his ideas, Charlton‘s book and this review in such

a way that we can begin to inquire about relationship between epistemology and religion and how our

approach to inquiry can embody a way of being religious.

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Appendix

It is interesting to note that within the time span of approximately 44 years, Bateson produced the

following major works: Naven (1936/1958); Balinese Character With Margaret Mead (1942); Percival’s

Narrative (1961); Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry with Jurgen Ruesch (1968); Bateson

initially published a compilation of 32 of his articles in Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972/2000). His

best known work is Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (1979/2002).

At the time of his death in 1980, Bateson was working on a book which his daughter, Mary

Catherine Bateson, posthumously co-authored and published as Angels Fear: Toward an Epistemology of

the Sacred in 1987/2005. The Introduction to Angels Fear makes the following statement:

The real synthesis of Gregory‘s work is in Mind and Nature, the first of his books

composed to communicate with the nonspecialist reader. Steps to an Ecology of Mind had

brought together the best of Gregory‘s articles and scientific papers, written for a variety of

specialist audiences and published in a multiplicity of contexts, and in the process Gregory

became fully aware of the potential for integration. The appearance of Steps also demonstrated

the existence of an audience eager to approach Gregory‘s work as a way of thinking, regardless of

the historically shifting contexts in which it had first been formulated, and this moved him along

to a new synthesis and a new effort of communication.

Where Angels Fear to Tread was to be different. He had become aware gradually that the

unity of nature he had affirmed in Mind and Nature might only be comprehensible through the

kind of metaphors familiar from religion; that is, in fact, he was approaching that integrative

dimension of experience he called the sacred. This was a matter he approached with great

trepidation, partly because he had been raised in a dogmatically atheistic household and partly

because he saw the potential in religion for manipulation, obscurantism, and division. The mere

use of the word religion is likely to trigger reflexive misunderstanding. The title of the book,
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therefore expresses, among other things, his hesitation and his sense of addressing new questions,

questions that follow from and depend upon his previous work but require a different kind of

wisdom, a different kind of courage.‖ (p. 1)

A Sacred Unity: Further Steps to an Ecology of Mind, edited by Rodney E. Donaldson (1991),

included an additional 32 articles previously published in different journals from 1942 to 1979. There is

also a series of 13 audio recorded lectures by Bateson available from Big Sur Tapes, Esalen.

Bateson was a deep and transdisciplinary thinker. The following books are worth mentioning because

they attest to having greatly contributed to his popularity and facilitated dissemination of his ideas:

1. Pragmatics of Human Communication, by Paul Watzlawick, J., Beavan, and D. Jackson (1967)

2. Our Own Metaphor: A Persona1 Account of a Conference on the Effects of Conscious Purpose on

Human Adaptation, by Mary Catherine Bateson (1972, 2005)

3. About Bateson, edited by John Brockman (1977)

4. Beyond the Double Bind: Communication and Family Systems, Theories and Techniques with

Schizophrenics, edited by Milton Berger (1978)

5. Gregory Bateson: The Legacy of a Scientist, by David Lipset (1980)

6. Body and Mind: Past, Present, Future, edited by Robert Rieber (1980)

7. System and Structure: Essays in communication and exchange (Second ed.), by Wilden, A. (1980)

8. Rigor And Imagination: Essays From The Legacy Of Gregory Bateson, edited by C. Wilder-Mott and

& John H. Weakland (1981)

9. Semiotic Foundations: Steps Toward an Epistemology of Texts, by Floyd Merrell (1982)

10. Aesthetics of Change, by Bradford Keeney (1983)

11. The Re-enchantment of the World, by Morris Berman (1984)

12. With a Daughter’s Eye: A Memoir of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, by Mary Catherine

Bateson (1984)

13. the Rules Are No Game: The Strategy of Communication, by Anthony Wilden (1987)
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14. Turtles All The Way Down: Prerequisites To Personal Genius, by Judith DeLozier and John Grinder

(1987)

15. The Individual, Community and Society: Essays in Memory of Gregory Bateson, edited by Robert

Rieber (1989)

16. Completing Distinctions, by Douglas Flemons (1991)

17. A Recursive Vision: Ecological Understanding and Gregory Bateson, by Peter Harries-Jones (1995)

18. From Coach to Awakener by Robert Dilts (2003)

19. Legacy For Living Systems: Gregory Bateson as Precursor to Biosemiotics, 2008.

To appreciate the power of Bateson‘s ideas and influence, here is another account provided by John

Grinder in the Forward to Leaves Before The Wind (1991), edited by Charlotte Bretto, Judith DeLozier,

John Grinder and Sylvia Topel:

An acquaintance of mine recently gave me, as a gift, a book called Angels Fear, authored

by Gregory Bateson and Mary Catherine Bateson. The book was a gift on several counts. I had

feared that I had received the last of the guidance and tutelage of a man who I consider to be one

of the geniuses of our century—Gregory Bateson—yet here before me, through the efforts of his

able daughter, was new material—his voice once again instructing and challenging me. Many

thanks to Mary Catherine Bateson for rescuing her father‘s unfinished manuscript and making it

available to the world. The second sense in which this book was a gift is that the manuscript is

relatively rough and unfinished. These qualities—the lack of polish, its only partially completed

state, the various false starts, the intellectual cul-de-sacs and so on—reduce its effectiveness,

perhaps as a document at the level of the content which Gregory was seeking to elucidate, but

increase its value at the level of process. Here are the tracks in the damp earth, here are the

scratches at the base of the piñon, here are the sections of prairie grass still bent, slightly

deviating from the wind-blown attitude of its associates—all messages which demand the

attention of the tracker—all signals which together form in the active, restless mind of the stalker
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a vivid, dynamic, and indeed compelling image of the great cat which passed this way not so long

ago. The manuscript reveals in a surprisingly transparent way the thinking of this great man in a

manner which his completed and polished works do not. That most relentless tracker of them

all—Death—found Gregory in July 1980 before he could return to the manuscript and sweep the

path clean of the traces of how he thought through the material which is its subject. Thus, this

document makes apparent what is opaque in his finished writing—the quality of movement of his

thinking process—arguably his most important contribution.

The partially completed building, the opening run through of a theater group, the initial

rehearsals of an orchestra working to make a new composition part of its repertoire, all offer the

astute observer deep insight into the underlying processes which yield the satisfaction of the

finished edifice, the magical quality of an opening night, the electricity of a debut performance.

(Pp. i-ii)

Angels Fear is Bateson‘s unfinished symphony. May it inspire many more! (pp. i-ii)

Equally pertinent are two documented accounts of Bateson‘s extended remission from cancer and

his struggle with the illness during his last dying days. Mary Catherine Bateson detailed her account in

―Six Days of Dying‖, and one of his former students, Stephen Nachmanovitch, reported on his

relationship and last days with Bateson in ―Old Men Ought To Be Explorers‖

(http://www.freeplay.com/Top/index.m2.html). Another resourceful site on Bateson is Oikos:

http://www.oikos.org/baten.htm.

Over the last several years, there seems to be a renewed interest in Gregory Bateson primarily in

United States and Europe, particularly through the efforts of multiple conferences and published articles

in several journals following Bateson‘s Centennial in 2004. Special issues were published by academic

journals such as Cybernetics and Human Knowing (vol. 12, nos. 1-2, 2005), Kybernetes (36, nos. 7-8,

2007), American Journal of Semiotics (vol. 19, iss. 1-4, 2003) and Semiotics, Evolution, Energy, and
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Development Journal (vol. 4, no. 1, 2004 http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/pages/SEED_Journal.html)

and others, totaling approximately 67 articles. Commemorative and other articles have been published in

such journals as Action Research, American Anthropologist, CoEvolution Quarterly, ETC, Family

Process and Journal of Systemic Therapies and . In the Centennial Copenhagen Bateson Symposium

2005, 28 presentations were made, 14 of which were edited by Jesper Hoffmeyer and published in 2008

by Springer under the title, ―A Legacy for Living Systems: Gregory Bateson as Precursor to

Biosemiotics‖. Charlton was a presenter at the conference but his work was not included in the book.

Bibliography

Bateson, G., & Bateson, M. C. (1987). Angels Fear: Towards an epistemology of the sacred. New York:
Bantam Books.

Bretto, C., DeLozier, J., Grinder, J., & Topel, S. (1991). Leaves Before The Wind. Santa Cruz, California:
Grinder, DeLozier & Associates.

Charlton, N. G. (2008). Understanding Gregory Bateson: Mind, Beauty, and the Sacred. Albany: State
University of New York Press.

Charlton, N. (2009, November). Gregory Bateson – and how I came to know and understand his work.
Retrieved December 10, 2009, from Noel G. Charlton: http://www.noelgcharlton.info/

Donaldson, R. E. (n.d.). Gregory Bateson Archive. Retrieved December 10, 2009, from Crazy Tiger
Institute: http://www.crazytigerinstitute.com/

Streng, F. J., Lloyd Jr., C. L., & Allen, J. T. (1973). Ways of Being Religious: Readings for a new
approach to religion . Eaglewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Wilden, A. (1980). System and Structure: Essays in communication and exchange (Second ed.). New
York: Tavistock Publucations.