Table Of ContentA Legacy for Living Systems
Gregory Bateson as Precursor to Biosemiotics
BIOSEMIOTICS
VOLUME 2
Series Editors Marcello Barbieri
Professor of Embryology
University of Ferrara, Italy
President
Italian Association for Theoretical Biology
Editor-in-Chief
Biosemiotics
Jesper Hoffmeyer
Associate Professor in Biochemistry
University of Copenhagen
President
International Society for Biosemiotic Studies
Aims and Scope of the Series
Combining research approaches from biology, philosophy and linguistics, the emerging field of biosemiotics
proposes that animals, plants and single cells all engage in semiosis – the conversion of physical signals into
conventional signs. This has important implications and applications for issues ranging from natural selec-
tion to animal behaviour and human psychology, leaving biosemiotics at the cutting edge of the research on
the fundamentals of life.
The Springer book series Biosemiotics draws together contributions from leading players in international
biosemiotics, producing an unparalleled series that will appeal to all those interested in the origins and evolu-
tion of life, including molecular and evolutionary biologists, ecologists, anthropologists, psychologists, phi-
losophers and historians of science, linguists, semioticians and researchers in artificial life, information theory
and communication technology.
Jesper Hoffmeyer
Editor
A Legacy for Living Systems
Gregory Bateson as Precursor
to Biosemiotics
Jesper Hoffmeyer
Department of Molecular Biology
The Biocenter
University of Copenhagen
Ole Maaløes Vej 5
2200 København N
Denmark
http://jhoffmeyer.dk
ISBN 978-1-4020-6705-1 e-ISBN 978-1-4020-6706-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007941785
© 2008 Springer Science + Business Media B.V.
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Acknowledgement
Preliminary versions of the chapters in this book were all presented as papers
at the Copenhagen Bateson Symposium 2005, sponsored by the University of
C openhagen’s Priority area for Religion in the 21st century (http://www.ku.dk/
priority/Religion/index.htm).
v
Contents
Acknowledgement ............................................................................................ v
Contributors ..................................................................................................... ix
Introduction: Bateson the Precursor .............................................................. 1
Jesper Hoffmeyer
Chapter 1 Angels Fear Revisited: Gregory Bateson’s Cybernetic
Theory of Mind Applied to Religion-Science Debates ................ 15
Mary Catherine Bateson
Chapter 2 From Thing to Relation. On Bateson’s
Bioanthropology .......................................................................... 27
Jesper Hoffmeyer
Chapter 3 What Connects the Map to the Territory? ............................... 45
Tyrone Cashman
Chapter 4 The Pattern Which Connects Pleroma to Creatura:
The Autocell Bridge from Physics to Life ................................. 59
Terrence Deacon and Jeremy Sherman
Chapter 5 Bateson’s Method: Double Description. What is It?
How Does It Work? What Do We Learn? ................................ 77
Julie Hui, Tyrone Cashman, and Terrence Deacon
Chapter 6 Gregory Bateson’s Relevance to
Current Molecular Biology ........................................................ 93
Luis Emilio Bruni
Chapter 7 Process Ecology: Creatura at Large in an
Open Universe ............................................................................. 121
Robert E. Ulanowicz
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viii Contents
Chapter 8 Connections in Action – Bridging Implicit and
Explicit Domains ....................................................................... 135
Theresa S.S. Schilhab and Christian Gerlach
Chapter 9 Bateson: Biology with Meaning ............................................... 145
Brian Goodwin
Chapter 10 Gregory Bateson’s “Uncovery” Of Ecological
Aesthetics ................................................................................... 153
Peter Harries-Jones
Chapter 11 Collapsing the Wave Function of Meaning:
The Epistemological Matrix of Talk-in-Interaction ................. 169
Donald Favareau
Chapter 12 Re-Enchanting Evolution: Transcending
Fundamentalisms through a Mythopoeic
Epistemology ............................................................................... 213
Gregory Mengel
Chapter 13 Bateson and Peirce on the Pattern that Connects
and the Sacred ........................................................................... 229
Søren Brier
Chapter 14 Bateson, Peirce, and the Sign of the Sacred ............................ 257
Deborah Eicher-Catt
Index .................................................................................................................. 277
Contributors
Mary Catherine Bateson
Winter:
172 Lexington Ave. Apt. 3, Cambridge MA 02138, USA
47 Depot Rd., Hancock NH 03449, USA
Søren Brier
Ved Vandløbet 21, 2610 Rødovre, Denmark
Luis Emilio Bruni
Department for Media Technology and Engineering Science, Aalborg University,
Lautrupvang 15, 2750 Ballerup, Denmark
Tyrone Cashman
Institute for the Study of Natural and Cultural Resources, 5 Kent Way, Mill
Valley, CA 94941, USA
Terrence Deacon
Department of Anthropology and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute,
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Deborah Eicher-Catt
California State University, East Bay, Department of Communication,
25800 Carlos Bee Boulevard, Hayward, CA 94542, USA
Donald Favareau
National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent ADM #06-37,
Singapore 119260
Christian Gerlach
The Danish University of Education, Tuborgvej 164, 2400 Copenhagen NV,
Denmark
Brian Goodwin
Schumacher College, Dartington, Devon TQ9 6EA, UK
ix
x Contributors
Peter Harries-Jones
Department of Anthropology, York University, Ontario, 4700 Keele Street,
Toronto M3J 1P3, Canada
Jesper Hoffmeyer
Department of Molecular Biology, University of Copenhagen,
Ole Maalies Vej 5, 2200, Kibenhavn N, Denmark,
