[Neurons] 2025 Neurons #39 FINAL WORD ABOUT EPISTEMOLOGY

Sun Sep 21 20:11:50 EDT 2025

From: L. Michael Hall

2025 Neurons #39

September 22, 2025

NLP as Epistemology #7

A FINAL WORD ABOUT EPISTEMOLOGY 

Not long before his death, Gregory Bateson flew to London to give a lecture.
He titled it, "Last Lecture" and in it he said "I want to offer you the
thinking which I have done" over all these years.  As his going-away speech,
and as a way to summarize his life, his discoveries, all of the ideas and
models that he created, he thought that central to everything was his
thinking.  It was the greatest gift.

In that speech, he spoke about different kinds of thinking that he
discovered which had been the focus of his career.  He spoke about holistic
thinking-thinking about mind-body as one phenomenon and not 'mind' and
'body.' He spoke about relational thinking-how everything is related to
everything else and that thingish thinking misdirects us.  He spoke about
the heart of thinking -ideas or information as "the difference that makes a
difference" and that the only thing that gets onto the map (in the mind) is
"news of difference."  He spoke about hierarchical thinking since we have
"ideas about ideas."

"Viewing the world in terms of things is a distortion supported by language
... the correct view of he world in in terms of dynamic relations." (1990,
p. 311)

"The bridge between map and territory is difference.   It is only news of
difference that can get from the territory to the map, and this fact is the
basic epistemological statement about the relationship between all reality
out there and all perception in here; that the bridge must always be in the
form of difference." (1990, p. 218)

"Our epistemology is structured in hierarchic form." (Ibid., 220)

"In thought what we have are ideas. There are no pigs, no coconut palms, no
people, no books ... nothing.  There are only ideas of pigs and coconut
palms and people and whatever.  Only ideas, names, and things like that.
This lands you in a world which is totally strange." (Ibid., p. 237)

The bottom line in this: Epistemology is a fancy word for "thinking," for
your way of thinking, for how you organize your understanding and your
processes for knowing which then shape and limit what gets from 'outside'
through your sense organs.  And because NLP is a process for "running your
own brain," NLP is essentially this new epistemology from Bateson.  And as
we update the NLP model in Neuro-Semantics, that means that- 

Neuro-Semantics as an epistemology-is a way of thinking and a habit of mind
for paying attention in specific ways which allow us to manage our minds and
emotions, our behaviors and speech more effectively.

To the extent that we are actualizing the kinds of thinking and the thinking
patterns that Bateson described, I think Bateson would have been thrilled
with what we are doing in Neuro-Semantics. This is, to a big extent,
Neuro-Semantics has been upgrading NLP.  Accordingly, using the reflexivity
of both the mind and language, we have mapped out how the logical levels
work thereby understanding how our beliefs, concepts, values, and all of the
other meta-level terms work.

"If we have wrong ideas of how our abstractions are built-if in a word, we
have poor epistemological hab its-we shall be in trouble -and we are."
(Ibid., p. 233)

We have also been mapping out the structure of thinking itself.  This has
enabled us to specific the many different kinds of thinking and 'thinking'
as a system.  To this Bateson has contributed a lot.  He has taught us how
to -

           Think systemically and in terms of relationships.

           Think directionally.  Where is your thinking taking you?  Is
that where you want to go?  When thinking is too purposeful, then we make
the epistemological error of "the ends justify the means" and that is not
only immoral, but unecological for the system.

           Think in terms of self-corrective systems.  Ecological thinking
needs ongoing feedback as it operates so as to check itself and not become a
runaway system.

           Think hierarchically regarding the levels of ideas.  This avoids
the confusion of levels that creates the epistemological errors of paradox
and schizophrenia. 

           Think in terms of dynamic change.  This process thinking of
seeing interactions then solves the medieval thinking of 'things'
(nominalizations, adjectives).  

In the end, it is all about thinking.  And while that may seem so simple and
obvious, it is not.  As it turns out-thinking is ultimately the most
challenging thing you will ever do.  That's because you have to use your
thinking to become aware of your thinking and to then keep updating your
thinking.  All of this requires meta-thinking.

The Newest book --- WHEN THINKING GOES DEEP

About Kinesthetic knowing is now on the Shop

and why.

https://www.neurosemantics.com/product/when-thinking-goes-deep/

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Executive Director, ISNS

738 Beaver Lodge

Grand Jct., CO. 81505 USA

meta at acsol.net

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