8 quotes
If a man achieves or suffers change in premises which are deeply embedded in his mind, he will surely find that the results of that change will ramify throughout his whole universe.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)
The playful nip denotes the bite, but it does not denote what would be denoted by the bite.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)
The necessary ingredients for a double bind situation, as we see it, are
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)
We are most of us governed by epistemologies that we know to be wrong
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)
Perhaps there is no such thing as unilateral power. After all, the man "in power" depends on receiving information all the time from outside. He responds to that information just as much as he "causes" things to happen...it is an interaction, and not a lineal situation.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)
But the myth of power is, of course, a very powerful myth, and probably most people in this world more or less believe in it. It is a myth, which, if everybody believes in it, becomes to that extent self-validating. But it is still epistemological lunacy and leads inevitably to various sorts of disaster.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)
What is true is that the idea of power corrupts. Power corrupts most rapidly those who believe in it, and it is they who will want it most. Obviously, our democratic system tends to give power to those who hunger for it and gives every opportunity to those who don’t want power to avoid getting it. Not a very satisfactory arrangement if power corrupts those who believe in it and want it.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)
What we mean by information — the elementary unit of information — is a difference which makes a difference, and it is able to make a difference because the neural pathways along which it travels and is continually transformed are themselves provided with energy. The pathways are ready to be triggered. We may even say that the question is already implicit in them.
Steps to an Ecology of Mind (1972)