Gregory Bateson ha ancora qualcosa da insegnarci?
Four young researhers from different disciplines and approaches are provoked by the question "Does Gregory Bateson have anything more to teach us?". They answer by taking move from different keywords in Bateson's vocabulary, from some quotations of Bateson's work, and from the story of how they came to know Bateson and his thought. We decided to write this multi-authored article most of all to document and share a nice interaction, one "thinking mind" triggered by the question about Bateson, teaching, and learning. We had the encounter with Bateson in common, but we never had the occasion before to talk in deep, being involved in different research fields although in the same Department. Bateson unites, Bateson divides, Bateson unites again: visions and ideas that have emerged here are not an absolute convergence. Bateson's thought itself would not allow that. Rather, here is a little "harmony of differences" in interpretations, perspectives, and meanings. In the question about what more Bateson has to teach us, we chose to interpret the word "teach" in a non-transmissive, critical way: how does Bateson make us critical in the context where we work? What does he have to teach to us and to our research contexts? Alessia Vitale takes move from the batesonian word "creature" to tell how Gregory Bateson's thought may be approached and understood only by considering man and his theory as part of the living world, so realizing one of Bateson's own messages, and moreover giving a lesson for our way of considering knowledge. Emanuele Serrelli discusses the relationship between map and territory, and the ambivalent oscillation between the two in all Bateson's work; in this movement Bateson teaches a scientific method, touching - according to Serrelli - on territories, not only maps. A different perspective is offered by Andrea Galimberti. Through the keyword "metaphor" he describes in another, maybe more "creatural" way the relationships between maps and territories, emphasizing the importance of hiding besides unveiling, where an excess of explanations ends up by killing any life history. Finally, Andrée Bella looks at knowing through the batesonian term "grace", which relates to ancient concepts like "art", and opposes the tendency of "conscious purpose" to separate and damage reality. So, together with Bateson, Bella invites to reconnect knowledge with the whole person, origin, and the vast ensemble of "the pattern which connects".
