LIKE it or not, the world is a complicated place. In trying to make some sense of the chaos, most scientists take the easy path of reductionism. But Gregory Bateson swam determinedly against the tide. By the time he died in 1980 at the age of 76, Bateson had applied his holistic approach to disciplines as diverse as anthropology, cybernetics, evolutionary biology; ecology and psychiatry. A recurrent theme was that we should study complex systems in terms of the patterns, flow and context of information. An ecosystem, he argued, is best understood by looking for patterns of communication among its component parts, rather than defining its energetic capacity to support life.
Unfortunately, Bateson鈥檚 own writings were often impenetrable, even to his close colleagues. So a thoughtful reworking of his ideas would come in handy, particularly in today鈥檚 information-intensive and ecologically conscious sodety In A Recursive Vision: Ecological Understanding and Gregory Bateson (University of Toronto Press, 拢11.65 pbk, ISBN 0 8020 7591 6), Peter Harries-Jones attempts to do this without, as he puts it, 鈥渋lluminating the obscure with the obscure鈥�. Those lacking Harries-Jones鈥檚 familiarity with his subject matter will find that obscurity still reigns. If your relationship with the social sciences, philosophy and even quantum physics is less than intimate, the going is tough.