Examine and explain three (3) of Batesons observations or stories in Conscious Purpose Versus Nature which illustrate or help explain this new idea of life on earth as one, unified, internally differentiated system.

PART A

[everyone must answer PART A]

All the different observations and stories that Gregory relates or tells in Conscious Purpose Versus Nature could be said to reflect a huge shift in the understanding of the earth, toward seeing it as one, enormous, living organism, within which humanity is a unique and very special part. Much as a colony of ants functions truly as one organism, so, at much higher levels of complexity, do human families, nations and cultures. All the levels are interconnected as a matrix of communication of information, from the cells to the national governments and yet they are subject to some compartmentalization (see p439, or p6 of the pdf file). That is, they are connected, but differentiated too. The connections are delayed in time and stretched over space, so that differences are maintained.

QUESTION: Examine and explain three (3) of Batesons observations or stories in Conscious Purpose Versus Nature which illustrate or help explain this new idea of life on earth as one, unified, internally differentiated system.

PART B – Choose and answer 1 out of 4

1. The structural differential, as a model of the perceptual-linguistic process, could also be described as a model of multiple levels of reality. Explain what the different levels of the structural-differential mean, how they relate, and in what sense they can be described as different levels of reality.

Note: evidently, you cannot take direct quotations from the structural-differential, as it is not a text, so the requirement to use direct quotations (see below) does not apply to this question. For this question, instead, you need to provide, and the assignment will be assessed upon, the precision and accuracy of the descriptions of the levels, and the coherence of explanations of how they relate to each other, and to notions of “reality.”

2. What does Daniel Stern mean by his metaphor of weatherscape? How is the perceptual experience of the infant different from that of the older child or adult? Why does he resort to poetry to convey the experience of the 6-week old infant?

3. Using the pieces of evidence and research shared in Topic 4, explain:

a. how it could be plausible to say that Cetaceans, like humans, utilize a digital code, or a variable-hybridized analog-digital code?

b. with Batesons theory and the other evidence, how could we say this Cetacean digital communication would compare and contrast with human verbal communication?

4. How can the formation of the CBC be seen as reflective of multiple and different ideological influences, both British-Imperial-conservative (blue pill) and capitalist-continental (red pill), but also neither blue pill nor red pill a no pill ideology or epistemology?

Format
This assignment consists of two essays, each of a length of 500-550 words (a total of about 5 pages, double-spaced, with 12-pt. font, for both). Both should be saved in one .pdf file with the correct name format (see above).

Please note that you are REQUIRED TO SUPPORT YOUR IDEAS WITH DIRECT QUOTATIONS. Good paraphrasing (including detailed descriptions of the diagrams) is important too, but there must be at least three direct quotations from the text-based reading for the assignment. Page references must be provided in brackets or by a citation method of your choice (check with us if you have questions).

PLEASE DO NOT USE SECONDARY SOURCES FOR THE ESSAY. Of course you are free to read other sources, but the essays are restricted strictly to the course materials.

No title page is necessary, but you must include a WORD COUNT at the end.

Evaluation
For an essay all four of the Criteria of Evaluation Download Criteria of Evaluationare in play, including Coherence. When providing feedback, your assessor may or may not feel that using a colour-code to indicate which criterion is most applicable is helpful.

Remember, as the Criteria of Evaluation document says, that Coherence is roughly same as Relevance or Focus. Each essay question is asking you to provide an answer to a question. An essay is not a story that just suggests or implies an answer or meaning. An essay must give an explicit answer, whose aspects or sub-topics are explored systematically. To the extent this characterizes your essay, your essay is Coherent.

For purposes of Coherence it is, as we often learn in high school, good to summarize your overall point, in a way that includes everything that is to come in a general way, at the beginning. This is your thesis or premise. Sustaining a coherent thesis or premise is very important. An essay that lacks a coherent overall premise will rarely score better than 70% (B-).

Your essay needs to develop its premise by demonstrating that it is Accurate to the text in question (all essay questions refer to texts of some kind; they are NOT asking you to say ‘what is going on’ in a general-research fashion). It needs to include Detail, including sufficient direct quotations from the course readings (and you must include page numbers in brackets – but no formal citations or WORKS CITED are necessary).

All essays depend exclusively on the course readings and there should be no outside references.

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