This really isn’t my field so I wouldn’t necessarily know. I am a philosophy of science researcher and I’m interested in some of the philosophical claims he makes in his introduction to An Ecology of Mind but they are incredibly critical of huge swathes of the social sciences. This has me wondering whether he is a respected figure in the social sciences or is viewed as a bit of a crackpot. This will inevitably effect how I go about referencing his work, or whether I bother to talk about him at all.
Any help is appreciated.
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In terms of citation counts, he’s not irrelevant: https://www.semanticscholar.org/author/G.-Bateson/48903040
Social scientists with public influence outside their discipline are almost always regarded with skepticism by "pure" academics. The same goes for interdisciplinary thinkers. He’s no longer nearly as relevant as he once was decades ago but crackpot is a bit strong.