Bateson, Maxwell’s Dynamic Emergence, in Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity

by Corry Shores
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Maxwell’s Dynamic Emergence

Gregory Bateson

Mind and Nature:

A Necessary Unity

Ch. IV

Criteria of Mental Process

Criterion 4. Mental Process Requires Circular

(or More Complex) Chains of Determination

Maxwell examined the problem. He wrote out formal equations for relations between the variables at each successive equations for relations between the variables at each successive step around the circuit. He found, as the engineers had found, that combining this set of equation would not solve the problem. Finally, he found that the engineers were at fault in not considering time. Every given system embodies relations to time, that is, was characterized by time constants determined by the given whole. These constants were not determined by the equations of relationship between successive parts but were emergent properties of the system. (119a, boldface, underline mine)

Bateson, Gregory. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity.London: Wildwood House, 1979.

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http://books.google.be/books?id=aQtHAAAAMAAJ&q=Mind+and+Nature:+A+Necessary+Unity&dq=Mind+and+Nature:+A+Necessary+Unity&ei=CWcpSpDIF5TyzQSqiZj7Cg&hl=en&pgis=1