Tom Ellis
Jun 18, 2023

Thank you, Janice. I have often found that Bateson was one of the most underrated intellectuals of our time, largely because his thinking did not fit into any one disciplinary "niche" because it was inherently interdisciplinary. His final synthesis, "Mind and Nature: a Necessary Unity" is brilliant: a compelling critique of our dominant Cartesian paradigm (the separation of "res cogitans" from "res extensa" which casts humans as the subject and "nature," both physical and biological, as the object, and which thus provided the epistemic foundation for the exploitation and ultimate destruction of our living planet.)

Tom Ellis
Tom Ellis

Written by Tom Ellis

I am a retired English professor now living in Oregon, and a life-long environmental activist, Buddhist, and holistic philosopher.

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