Rating: 
Summary: Very good intro. to Bateson
Review: Reading "Steps" helped save me from the unremitting horrors of divorce court; I'd probably be on a death row somewheres if not for this & some peripherally associated material. I am very pleased to see that it's in print again.From those meticulous metalogues to those essays on the Theory of Logical Types, Bateson can mesmerize, if you're prepared for it. "Steps" is to science & reason what Frost's "West Running Brook" is to poetry: an intense meditation, soliloquy & dialogue. It's worth your while.
Rating: 
Summary: Buzzwords mixed toghether in a pile of dross
Review: Take all the buzzwords in fashion in psychology and philosophy: classification, genotype, flexibility, somatic, discrete, threshold, characteristics, analytic... mix everything together and you get this book.
In other words there's not an ounce of meaning in those 700 pages, it's all worthless. No case studies, no examples, long phrases full of self importance written by someone who thinks he's an authority in everything from zen to medecine to evolution theory to archeology. Not only does he prove he doesn't understand anything, you'll laugh yourself silly reading any paragraph of the book at random. If you have to read this for an assignment, you'd better change major and give it to your worst enemy for toilet paper. That's how low I think of this. And to think that a tree was felled for this. Ha !
Rating: 
Summary: Most Unusual Idea in Clear Expression
Review: When I first got this book, I can't put it down. Actually, I first took notice to this book when Goerge Soros strongly recommended it. I then got one in the library and I have read and reread it until I've jot down all the important points. The first idea is that Nature has a mind of itself. Acutally, this so called "mind" is just the composite of everything in nature. But there is a balance of force here to keep the survival of all. Thus the book called "Ecology". The second point is that Man has to take notice to this point. Listen to the nature, and let the mind of nature tells it all. Also, Mr Bateson has included some interesting application of his theory in other field, including psychology and lingustics. I strongly recommended you to get one and read.
| 
