ABSTRACT
Gregory Bateson (1904-1980) was one of the most intellectually ambitious and innovative social scientists of this century. An anthropologist by training, Bateson sought to develop an epistemology for the social sciences and an understanding of the human mind built around the concepts of communication and information. Methodologically, Bateson recognized the revolutionary importance of permanent recordings (photographs, film, and audiotape) as research data for the social sciences and offered pioneering efforts in this direction. His collaboration with what has come to be called the Palo Alto group marks an important point of departure in the development of communication theory. His writings include Naven, Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis, Communication: The Social Matrix of Psychiatry, Steps to an Ecology of Mind, Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity, and Angels Fear: Toward an Epistemology of the Sacred.
