Systems Within Systems: Formulating a Theory of Education From Gregory Bateson's Theory of Stochasticity

• In Event: Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Roundtable Session: Using Complexity Theory Toward a Deeper Understanding of Educational Processes

Abstract

In Mind and Nature Gregory Bateson works out an approach to thought in which mind and nature form a “necessary unity” rather than being considered as two opposing things. Demonstrating the interactional processes in play between mental and physical phenomena, Bateson restores continuity to those divisions that Descartes had described as absolute and distinct, and as a result restores unity between them. This paper examines one particular element of what Bateson saw as similar between mind and nature, that is, stochasticity. Reviewing how the Two Great Stochastic Processes work in populations and individuals, I will outline the implications I find in Bateson’s analysis for our attitudes toward both mind and nature in terms of education.

Author

• Sarah Cashmore, University of Toronto