Essay Comparing Woolf And Bateson

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Woolf/Bateson Reading Response Shuai Peng
In "Form, Substance, and Difference" written by Gregory Bateson, it mainly discuss on the topic of difference theories and humanity leading to the consciousness of one's body. In contrast, Virginia Woolf’s long essay talks about women and fiction. Although the two seems unrelated by any chance, there are some similarities. Both writers were at the time of the two world war. For Woolf, she fought for the right of women, but in a different way from other feminists. Other people fight for women right by separate themselves from men. However, Woolf stands on the opinion that women should gain independence in society and culture to gain actual equality. …show more content…

People's individual activities are not isolated but it is an interaction between the environment, air, earth, and other organisms. No matter what our action or what result we have, there are always factors that is leading. For us, our activities are determined by our goal and target which influences our perception. The limitation that we have also brought us wrong signals and ideas which Bateson calls “the philosophy of control based upon false knowledge. Our mind which is rational and is controlling our body gives us consciousness which provides us the opportunities to learn. However, if we want to get comprehensive, we must not only use our "limited conscious but also combine those rational thoughts and irrational thoughts. Without the composition of both reason and sense, we will never obtain knowledge fully. “He believed that religion and art are some of the few areas in which a man is acting as a whole individual in complete consciousness." This quote is very inspiring because architecture is part of art and has strong ties to religions. Architecture is also one of the few areas which require both consciousness and unconsciousness. For example, when one building was made, it has certain requirements involving physics and structure. On the other hand, it also requires our irrational ideas. From this point of view, I believe that Bateson's quotations are valid and

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