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For semantics in general, see Semantics. General Semantics is an educational discipline created by Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) during the years 1919 to 1933. General Semantics is distinct from semantics, a different subject. The name technically refers to the study of what Korzybski called "semantic reactions", or reactions of the whole human organism in its environment to some event — any event, not just perceiving a human-made symbol — in respect of that event's meaning. However, people most commonly use the name to mean the particular system of semantic reactions that Korzybski called the most useful for human survival, i.e. delayed reactions as opposed to "signal reactions" (immediate, unthinking ones). The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... For other uses, see Discipline (disambiguation). ... Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski is a philosopher and scientist born on July 3, 1879 in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire and died on March 1, 1950, in Lakeville, Connecticut, USA. He is probably best-remembered for developing the theory of general semantics. ... Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Advocates of General Semantics view it as a form of mental hygiene that enables practitioners to avoid ideational traps built into natural language and "common sense" assumptions, thereby enabling practitioners to think more clearly and effectively. General Semantics thus shares some concerns with psychology but is not precisely a therapeutic system, being in general more focused on enhancing the abilities of normal individuals than curing pathology. For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation). ... Ideation is the process of forming and relating ideas. ... The term natural language is used to distinguish languages spoken and signed (by hand signals and facial expressions) by humans for general-purpose communication from constructs such as writing, computer-programming languages or the languages used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic. ... For other uses, see Common sense (disambiguation). ... Psychological science redirects here. ... Psychotherapy is an interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to aid clients in problems of living. ... A renal cell carcinoma (chromophobe type) viewed on a hematoxylin & eosin stained slide Pathologist redirects here. ... According to Korzybski, the central goal of General Semantics is to develop in its practitioners what he called "consciousness of abstracting", that is, an awareness of the map/territory distinction and of how much of reality is missed in the linguistic and other representations we use. General Semantics teaches that it is not sufficient to understand this sporadically and intellectually, but rather that we achieve full sanity only when consciousness of abstracting becomes constant and a matter of reflex. Consciousness is a quality of the mind generally regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, sapience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and ones environment. ... abstraction in general. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... For other uses, see Reality (disambiguation). ... For the journal, see Linguistics (journal). ... Intelligence is a general mental capability that involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend ideas and language, and learn. ... Sanity considered as a legal term denotes that an individual is of sound mind and therefore can bear legal responsibility for his or her actions. ... For other uses, see Reflexive (disambiguation). ... Many General Semantics practitioners view its techniques as a kind of self-defense kit against manipulative semantic distortions routinely promulgated by advertising, politics, and religion, as well as those found in self-deception. The word manipulation can refer to: Joint manipulation Social influence Sleight of hand tricks in magic or XCM. Abuse Advertising Brainwashing Charisma Fraud Indoctrination Love bombing Machiavellianism Media manipulation Mind control Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) Propaganda Social psychology Puppeteer Photo manipulation Categories: | | ... Advert redirects here. ... For other uses, see Politics (disambiguation). ... Self-deception is a process of denying or rationalizing away the relevance, significance, or importance of opposing evidence and argument. ... Viewed philosophically, General Semantics is a form of applied conceptualism that emphasizes the degree to which human experience is filtered and mediated by contingent features of human sensory organs, the human nervous system, and human linguistic constructions. Conceptualism is a doctrine in philosophy intermediate between nominalism and realism, that universals exist only within the mind and have no external or substantial reality. ... (See also sense) A sensory system is a part of the nervous system that consists of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and those parts of the brain responsible for processing the information. ... The Human Nervous System. ... The most important premise of General Semantics has been succinctly expressed as "The map is not the territory; the word is not the thing defined".[1] While Aristotle wrote that a true definition gives the essence of the thing defined (in Greek to ti ên einai, literally “the what it was to be”), general semantics denies the possibility of finding such an essence. The map is not the territory is an expression meaning that an abstraction derived from something, or a reaction to it, is not the thing itself, e. ... For other uses, see Aristotle (disambiguation). ... Contents 1 Other aspects of the system 2 Korzybski's books 3 History 4 Connections to other disciplines 5 Criticism 6 See also 7 Notes 8 References 9 Related Reading 10 External links [edit] Other aspects of the system There are more elements, but these three in particular stand out: Time-binding: The human ability to pass information and knowledge between generations at an accelerating rate. Korzybski claimed this to be a unique capacity, separating us from other animals. Animals pass knowledge, but not at an exponential rate, i.e., each generation of animals does things pretty much in the same way as the previous generation. For example, humans used to look for food, but now we grow or raise it. Other animals are still looking, i.e. they don't consciously grow or raise food. Silence on the objective levels: As 'the word is not the thing it represents,' Korzybski stressed the nonverbal experiencing of our inner and outer environments. During these periods of training, one would become "outwardly and inwardly silent." The system advocates a general orientation by extension rather than intension, by relational facts rather than assumed properties, an attitude, regardless of how expressed in words, that, for example, George 'does things that seem foolish to me,' rather than that he is 'a fool.' Much of General Semantics consists of training techniques and reminders intended to break mental habits that impede dealing with reality. Three of the most important reminders are expressed here by the shorthand "Null-A, Null-I, and Null-E". In metaphysics, extension is the property of taking up space; see Extension (metaphysics). ... Intension refers to the meanings or characteristics encompassed by a given word. ... Habits are automatic routines of behavior that are repeated regularly, without thinking. ... Null-A is non-Aristotelianism; General Semantics stresses that reality is not adequately mapped by two-valued (Aristotelian) logics. (See also: Abductive reasoning) Null-I is non-Identity; General Semantics teaches that no two phenomena can ever be shown identical (if only because they may differ beyond the limits of measurement) and that it is more sane to think in terms of "sufficient similarity for the purposes of the analysis we are currently performing". Null-E is non-Euclideanism; General Semantics reminds us that the space we live in is not adequately described by Euclidean geometry. The underlying purpose of these reminders is both to adjust our conceptual maps better to the territory of reality and to keep us reminded of the limitations of all maps. Non-Aristotelian, in this particular case, refers to the use of non-Aristotelian logic rather than the aforementioned philosophical disagreement. However, Korzybski saw these as linked. The complex nature of the objects we interact with means that reasoning from "essence" or definitions will often lead us astray. This creates uncertainty, which general semantics links to the use of non-Aristotelian logic. The term non-Aristotelian logic, sometimes shortened to null-A, is a term popularised by A. E. van Vogt and deriving from Alfred Korzybskis General Semantics. ... This article needs cleanup. ... Abduction, or inference to the best explanation, is a method of reasoning in which one chooses the hypothesis that would, if true, best explain the relevant evidence. ... Euclid Euclidean geometry is a mathematical system attributed to the Greek mathematician [[Euclid]] of Alexandria. ... The term non-Aristotelian logic, sometimes shortened to null-A, is a term popularised by A. E. van Vogt and deriving from Alfred Korzybskis General Semantics. ... [edit] Korzybski's books Korzybski's first book, Manhood of Humanity, published in 1921, introduced the notion of time-binding as the defining distinction between humans and other organisms. There, he used the imagery of dimension to spell out the unique niche humans occupy among organisms. The book became an immediate best-seller, and remained in that status for several years. He rejected explicitly the claim that we could consider a human as either a ‘monstrous hybrid’ of animal with some supernatural or immaterial ‘mind’, ‘soul’, or ‘spirit’, or simply as animal. In his defining of humans in terms of what they do rather that attempting to state what they are, he declared a fundamental revision of the 2,500-year old philosophic foundations of science, philosophy, and biology. His major work was Science and Sanity, an Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, published in 1933. A third book of his writings, Alfred Korzybski Collected Writings 1920-1950, was published in 1990. [edit] History Korzybski's most well-known student was S. I. Hayakawa, who wrote Language in Thought and Action (1941), which became an alternative Book-of-the-Month Club selection. An earlier and less influential book in 1938 was The Tyranny of Words, by Stuart Chase. A current book is Drive Yourself Sane, by Susan and Bruce Kodish, published in 2000. Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (July 18, 1906–February 27, 1992) was an English professor and academic who served as a United States Senator from California from 1977 to 1983. ... Language in Thought and Action is a book on semantics by Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa in consultation with Leo Hamalian and Geoffrey Wagner. ... Stuart Chase (1888-1985) was an American economist and engineer trained at MIT. His writings covered topics as diverse as General Semantics and physical economy. ... Two major groups were formed in the United States to promote the system: the Institute of General Semantics, in 1938, and the International Society for General Semantics, in 1943. In 2003, the two groups merged into one organization, now called the Institute of General Semantics, with headquarters in Fort Worth, Texas. There are also a New York Society for General Semantics, a European Society for General Semantics, and an Australian Society for General Semantics. The Institute of General Semantics is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1938 by Alfred Korzybski, located in Fort Worth, Texas. ... Nickname: Motto: Where the West Begins Location of Fort Worth in Tarrant County, Texas Coordinates: , Country State Counties Tarrant, Denton Government  - Mayor Michael J. Moncrief Area  - City 298. ... For other uses, see Texas (disambiguation). ... During the period of the 1940s and 1950s, general semantics entered the idiom of science fiction, most notably through the works of A. E. van Vogt, The World of Null-A and its sequels, and Robert A. Heinlein, Gulf. The ideas of General Semantics became a sufficiently important part of the shared intellectual toolkit of genre science fiction to merit parody by Damon Knight and others; they have since shown a tendency to reappear (often without attribution) in the work of more recent writers such as Samuel Delany, Suzette Haden Elgin and Robert Anton Wilson. The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949. ... The 1950s decade refers to the years 1950 to 1959 inclusive. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Alfred Elton van Vogt (April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born science fiction author who was one of the most prolific, yet complex, writers of the mid-twentieth century Golden Age of the genre. ... First edition by Simon & Schuster. ... Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of hard science fiction. ... Gulf (1949) is a novella by Robert A. Heinlein, originally published as a serial in the November and December 1949 issues of Astounding Science Fiction. ... Damon Knight (September 19, 1922 – April 15, 2002) was a science fiction author, editor, and critic. ... Samuel Ray Chip Delany, Jr. ... Suzette Haden Elgin is an American science fiction author. ... Robert Anton Wilson Robert Anton Wilson or RAW (January 18, 1932 – January 11, 2007) was a prolific American novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychologist, futurologist, anarchist, and conspiracy theory researcher. ... In 1952, General Semantics was pilloried in Martin Gardner's influential book, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. L. Ron Hubbard claimed that his work was based partly on general semantics, but the compliment was not returned. Writing in Etc: A Review of General Semantics, in the fourth quarter of 1951, Hayakawa said, "The lure of the pseudo-scientific vocabulary and promises of Dianetics cannot but condemn thousands who are beginning to emerge from scientific illiteracy to a continuation of their susceptibility to word-magic and semantic hash." ("Dianetics: From Science-Fiction to Fiction-Science," pp.280-293.) Martin Gardner (b. ... Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (1957) was Martin Gardners second book, and has become a classic in the literature of entertaining skepticism. ... Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was the creator of Dianetics, and founder of the Church of Scientology. ... This article is about the theory and practice termed Dianetics. ... Under the supervision of psychiatrist Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, U.S. medics in World War II used General Semantics to treat over 7,000 cases of battlefield neuroses in the European theater. Kelley is quoted in the preface to the third edition of Science and Sanity. The development of neuro-linguistic programming owes debts to general semantics. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... In modern psychology, the term neurosis, also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, is a general term that refers to any mental imbalance that causes distress, but (unlike a psychosis or personality disorder) does not prevent rational thought or an individuals ability to function in daily life. ... This article is not about the academic discipline of neurolinguistics which investigates the brain mechanisms underlying language. ... General Semantics has continued to exert some influence in popular psychology, psychology, anthropology, linguistics, and education. Usually because of the efforts of individual teachers, such as Drs. Michael Wapner and Chris Aable at CSULA, it has been taught at various times and places in high schools and universities in the U.S.; but in general, the system has had no consistent home in academia. The term popular psychology (frequently called pop psychology or pop psych), refers to concepts and theories about human mental life and behaviour that are purportedly based on psychology and that attain popularity amongst the general population. ... Psychological science redirects here. ... Anthropology (from Greek: ἀνθρωπος, anthropos, human being; and λόγος, logos, knowledge) is the study of humanity. ... For the journal, see Linguistics (journal). ... For other uses, see High school (disambiguation). ... For the community in Florida, see University, Florida. ... For other uses of terms redirecting here, see US (disambiguation), USA (disambiguation), and United States (disambiguation) Motto In God We Trust(since 1956) (From Many, One; Latin, traditional) Anthem The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City National language English (de facto)1 Demonym American... Academia is a collective term for the scientific and cultural community engaged in higher education and research, taken as a whole. ... Popular acceptance has likewise been very limited. As of 2005, the reputation of General Semantics has yet to recover from the damage Martin Gardner and L. Ron Hubbard did to it.[citation needed] [edit] Connections to other disciplines General Semantics has important links with analytic philosophy and the philosophy of science; it could be characterized without too much distortion as applied analytic philosophy. The influence of Ludwig Wittgenstein and the Vienna Circle, and of early operationalists and pragmatists such as Charles Sanders Peirce, is particularly clear in general semantics' foundational ideas. Korzybski himself acknowledged many of these influences. Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (IPA: ) (April 26, 1889 in Vienna, Austria – April 29, 1951 in Cambridge, England) was an Austrian philosopher who contributed several ground-breaking ideas to philosophy, primarily in the foundations of logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of mind. ... Moritz Schlick around 1930 The Vienna Circle (in German: der Wiener Kreis) was a group of philosophers who gathered around Moritz Schlick when he was called to the Vienna University in 1922, organized in a philosophical association named Verein Ernst Mach (Ernst Mach Society). ... Charles Sanders Peirce Charles Sanders Peirce (September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American logician, philosopher, scientist, and mathematician. ... Korzybski's concept of "silence on the objective level" and his insistence on consciousness of abstracting are parallel to some central ideas in Zen Buddhism. Korzybski is not recorded to have acknowledged any influence from this quarter, but he formulated General Semantics during the same years that the first popularizations of Zen were becoming part of the intellectual currency of educated English-speakers. On the other hand, later Zen-popularizer Alan Watts has been influenced by ideas from General Semantics. A woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, (Japan, 1887) depicting Bodhidharma the founder of Chinese Zen. ... From The Essential Alan Watts Alan Wilson Watts (January 6, 1915 – November 16, 1973) was a philosopher, writer, speaker, and expert in comparative religion. ... Although he appears to have misunderstood or altered some of the basics of GS, L. Ron Hubbard is widely thought to have used the theory in his creation of Dianetics; this in turn introduced General Semantics to a wider audience in the early 1950s, including popular science fiction writer A. E. van Vogt, personal growth theorist Harvey Jackins and his movement Re-evaluation Counseling and movements like Gestalt therapy. The founders of these movements did not themselves credit Korzybski for their ideas. Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986), better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was the creator of Dianetics, and founder of the Church of Scientology. ... This article is about the theory and practice termed Dianetics. ... Alfred Elton van Vogt (April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born science fiction author who was one of the most prolific, yet complex, writers of the mid-twentieth century Golden Age of the genre. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Re-evaluation Counseling, or RC is the worlds major organization for Co-counseling. ... Gestalt Therapy is an existential and experiential psychotherapy that focuses on the individuals experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts in which these things take place, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of the overall situation. ... Albert Ellis, who developed Rational emotive behavior therapy, acknowledges influence from general semantics. The conceptually related cognitive therapy, developed by psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck, formulates a program that could have been taken directly from the declared intentions of GS - cognitive therapy is rapidly developing into the most successful treatment of the more common psychological problems, thereby also validating the corresponding concepts of GS. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is a comprehensive, active-directive, philosophically and empirically based psychotherapy which focuses on resolving cognitive, emotional, and behavioral problems in human beings. ... This article is about Becks Cognitive Therapy. ... Aaron Temkin Beck (born July 18, 1921) is an American psychiatrist and a professor emeritus at the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. ... [edit] Criticism The quality of this article or section may be compromised by weasel words. You can help Wikipedia by removing weasel words. Martin Gardner seems to suggest that proponents of general semantics violate their own rules about withholding judgement, following the scientific method, and replacing dogmatic belief with various degrees of probability[citation needed]. Gardner also wrote of Korzybski that he "never tired of knocking over 'Aristotelian' habits of thought, in spite of the fact that what he called Aristotelian was a straw structure which bore almost no resemblance to the Greek philosopher's manner of thinking." Image File history File links Emblem-important. ... Martin Gardner (b. ... A straw man argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponents position. ... In the preface to the first edition of his book Science and Sanity - in 1933, more than twenty years before Gardner's criticism - Korzybski wrote the following: "The system by which the white race lives, suffers, 'prospers', starves, and dies today is not in a strict sense an aristotelian system. Aristotle had far too much of the sense of actualities for that. It represents, however, a system formulated by those who, for nearly two thousand years since Aristotle, have controlled our knowledge and methods of orientations, and who, for purposes of their own, selected what today appears as the worst from Aristotle and the worst from Plato and, with their own additions, imposed this composite system upon us. In this they were greatly aided by the structure of language and psycho-logical habits, which from the primitive down to this very day have affected all of us consciously or unconsciously, and have introduced serious difficulties even in science and in mathematics." The beginning of Chapter VII quotes A.N. Whitehead as saying, The theory of Potentiality and Actuality is one of the central themes of Aristotles philosophy and metaphysics. ... Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (February 15, 1861 _ December 30, 1947) was a British philosopher and mathematician who worked in logic, mathematics, philosophy of science and metaphysics. ... ...the subject-predicate habits of thought...had been impressed on the European mind by the overemphasis on Aristotle's logic during the long medieval period. In reference to this twist of mind, probably Aristotle was not an Aristotelian. and The evil produced by the Aristotelian 'primary substance' is exactly this habit of metaphysical emphasis upon the 'subject-predicate' form of proposition. Korzybski goes on to say, in the third paragraph of that chapter, that Aristotle was not only a most gifted man, but who, also, because of the character of his work, has influenced perhaps the largest number of people ever influenced by a single man; and so his work has undergone a most marked elaboration. Because of this, his name, in this book, will usually stand for the body of doctrines known as aristotelianism...Some of the statements may not be true about the founder of the school; yet they remain true about the school. In the preface to the second edition, having compared his system to non-Newtonian physics and non-Euclidean geometry, Korzybski also writes: Behavior of lines with a common perpendicular in each of the three types of geometry The term non-Euclidean geometry describes hyperbolic, elliptic and absolute geometry, which are contrasted with Euclidean geometry. ... I must stress that as the older systems are only special limitations of the new more general 'non' systems (see p.97), it would be incorrect to interpret a 'non' system as an 'anti' system. In response to the charge of unscientific behavior, general-semanticists like Bruce Kodish and Kenneth G. Johnson point to various scientific studies that they say appear to support Korzybski's claims. Martin Gardner and others cite an essay in Max Black's Language and Philosophy as the "definitive critique of general semantics". However, Kodish and others argue that Black's criticisms stem from misunderstandings of Science and Sanity (see references with external link to Kodish). Max Black (24 February 1909, Baku, Russian Empire [present-day Azerbaijan] – 27 August 1988, Ithaca, New York, United States) was a distinguished Anglo-American philosopher, who was a leading influence in analytic philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century. ... Black repeats the charge that Korzybski misrepresents Aristotle. He also seems to argue that Korzybski cannot prove the existence of an external world. A symbol of this external "event" or "scientific object" appears in the Structural Differential. Black views this as a contradiction, since Korzybski would say that our statements about this object derive in part from our nervous systems. Finally, Black claims "Korzybski holds the view that abstraction consists in 'leaving out details'," (p. 243) and says he ignores the brain's active role. Kodish replies that we have good reason to focus on this "leaving out", and that Black mistakes a practical concern for a definition. The Structural differential is a physical chart or three-dimensional model illustrating the abstracting processes of the human nervous system. ... Korzybski felt that his critics often confused their characterizations of what he said with what he said. His response to them was: "I said what I said. I did not say what I did not say." [edit] See also The map is not the territory Alfred Korzybski Institute of General Semantics Robert Pula Sanity Structural differential Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture Cognitive science E-Prime Language and thought List of NLP topics Sapir-Whorf hypothesis Gestalt Therapy Cognitive therapy Cognitive activism Time- and space-bias The map is not the territory is an expression meaning that an abstraction derived from something, or a reaction to it, is not the thing itself, e. ... Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski is a philosopher and scientist born on July 3, 1879 in Warsaw, Congress Poland, Russian Empire and died on March 1, 1950, in Lakeville, Connecticut, USA. He is probably best-remembered for developing the theory of general semantics. ... The Institute of General Semantics is a not-for-profit corporation established in 1938 by Alfred Korzybski, located in Fort Worth, Texas. ... Robert P. Pula, (1929–2004) was a Director Emeritus of the Institute of General Semantics, author of A General-Semantics Glossary, and a composer. ... Sanity considered as a legal term denotes that an individual is of sound mind and therefore can bear legal responsibility for his or her actions. ... The Structural differential is a physical chart or three-dimensional model illustrating the abstracting processes of the human nervous system. ... The distinguished Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture (AKML) series was begun in 1952. ... Cognitive science is usually defined as the scientific study either of mind or of intelligence (e. ... Dr. David Bourland coined the term E-Prime, short for English Prime, in the 1965 work A Linguistic Note: Writing in E-Prime to refer to the English language modified by prohibiting the use of the verb to be. E-Prime arose from Alfred Korzybskis General Semantics and his... A variety of different authors, theories and fields purport influences between language and thought. ... This is a list of topics related to Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). ... In linguistics, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (SWH) states that there is a systematic relationship between the grammatical categories of the language a person speaks and how that person both understands the world and behaves in it. ... Gestalt Therapy is an existential and experiential psychotherapy that focuses on the individuals experience in the present moment, the therapist-client relationship, the environmental and social contexts in which these things take place, and the self-regulating adjustments people make as a result of the overall situation. ... This article is about Becks Cognitive Therapy. ... The terms time-bias and space-bias describe concepts that anchor communication theorist Harold Inniss understanding of dominant communication technologies in history. ... [edit] Notes ^ For example, Hayakawa, S.I., Language in Thought and Action, Harcourt, Brace and Company, (New York), 1949, p.31: The symbol is NOT the thing symbolized; the word is NOT the thing; the map is NOT the territory it stands for. Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (July 18, 1906–February 27, 1992) was an English professor and academic who served as a United States Senator from California from 1977 to 1983. ... [edit] References Science and Sanity An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, Alfred Korzybski, Preface by Robert P. Pula, Institute of General Semantics, 1994, hardcover, 5th edition, ISBN 0-937298-01-8 (An online version is available here). "The Role of Language in the Perceptual Processes," Alfred Korzybski's 1950 article in Perception: An Approach to Personality, edited by Robert R. Blake and Glenn V. Ramsey. Copyright 1951, The Ronald Press Company, New York. online here. The Tyranny of Words by Stuart Chase, 1938 (later reprints). Probably the first popularization of Korzybski, pre-dating Hayakawa's first edition of Language in Action. The art of awareness; a textbook on general semantics by J. Samuel Bois, Dubuque, Iowa: W.C. Brown Co., 1966. Language in Thought and Action: Fifth Edition, S. I. Hayakawa and Alan R. Hayakawa, Harcourt, ISBN 0-15-648240-1. Symbol, status, and personality by S.I. Hayakawa, New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1963. Language habits in human affairs; an introduction to General Semantics by Irving J. Lee, Harper and Brothers, 1941. Still in print from the Institute of General Semantics. On a similar level to Hayakawa. The language of wisdom and folly; background readings in semantics edited by Irving J. Lee, Harper and Row, 1949. Was in print (ca. 2000) from the International Society of General Semantics -- now merged with the Institute of General Semantics. A selection of essays and short excerpts from different authors on linguistic themes emphasized by General Semantics -- without reference to Korzybski, except for an essay by him. Mathsemantics: making numbers talk sense by Edward MacNeal, HarperCollins, 1994. Penguin paperback 1995. Explicit General Semantics combined with numeracy education (along the lines of John Allen Paulos's books) and simple statistical and mathematical modelling, influenced by MacNeal's work as an airline transportation consultant. Discusses the fallacy of Single Instance thinking in statistical situations. Crazy Talk, Stupid Talk: how we defeat ourselves by the way we talk and what to do about it by Neil Postman, Delacorte Press, 1976. All of Postman's books are informed by his study of General Semantics (Postman was editor of ETC. from 1976 to 1986) but this book is his most explicit and detailed commentary on the use and misuse of language as a tool for thought. Operational philosophy: integrating knowledge and action by Anatol Rapoport, New York: Wiley (1953,1965). Semantics by Anatol Rapoport, Crowell, 1975. Both general semantics along the lines of Hayakawa, Lee, and Postman and more technical (mathematical and philosophical) material. A valuable survey. Rapoport's autobiography Certainties and Doubts : A Philosophy of Life (Black Rose Books, 2000) gives some of the history of the General Semantics movement as he saw it. Hayakawa's critique of Dianetics here The World of Null-A and The Pawns of Null-A (also published as The Players of Null-A) by A. E. van Vogt, science fiction novels which take a fanciful approach on how the non-Aristotelian discipline of general semantics might affect a society. Assignment in Eternity, (1942), specifically the story "Gulf," is a representative example of the influence of General Semantics in the work of Robert A. Heinlein. The homo novi or "supermen" of the story express recognizably Korzybskian ideas about the relationship between language and thought. Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. by Martin Gardner, New York: Dover Publications, 1957. A recent critique of Martin Gardner, "In the Name of Skepticism: Martin Gardner's Misrepresentations of General Semantics," by Bruce I. Kodish, appeared in General Semantics Bulletin, Number 71, 2004, pp. 50-63. Levels of Knowing and Existence: Studies in General Semantics, by Harry L. Weinberg, Harper and Row, 1959, hardcover, 274 pages. ETC.: A Review of General Semantics, journal, Institute of General Semantics. See a compendium of ETC articles here. People in Quandaries: the semantics of personal adjustment by Wendell Johnson, 1946 -- still in print from the Institute of General Semantics. Insightful book about the application of General Semantics to psychotherapy; was an acknowledged influence on Richard Bandler and John Grinder in their formulation of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Your Most Enchanted Listener by Wendell Johnson, Harper, 1956. Your most enchanted listener is yourself, of course. Similar material as in People in Quandaries but considerably briefer. Living With Change, Wendell Johnson, Harper Collins, 1972. Language and Philosophy: Studies in Method, Max Black, Cornell UP, 1949. "Contra Max Black: An Examination of 'The Definitive Critique' of General-Semantics" by Bruce I. Kodish closely examines Black's writing on general semantics and is available in the articles section of http://www.driveyourselfsane.com. Language Revision by Deletion of Absolutisms, by Allen Walker Read, 1984. a bibliography of general semantics papers. The Original Structural Differential. The Structural Differential. A Discussion of Korzybski's ethics, with emphasis on time-binding. Robert P. Pula, (1929–2004) was a Director Emeritus of the Institute of General Semantics, author of A General-Semantics Glossary, and a composer. ... Stuart Chase (1888-1985) was an American economist and engineer trained at MIT. His writings covered topics as diverse as General Semantics and physical economy. ... Samuel Ichiye Hayakawa (July 18, 1906-February 27, 1992) was an English professor and academic who served as a United States Senator from California from 1977 to 1983. ... John Allen Paulos is a professor of mathematics at Temple University in Philadelphia who has gained fame as a writer and speaker, usually on the topic of public ignorance about mathematics. ... Neil Postman (March 8, 1931 - October 5, 2003) was an American professor, media theorist, and cultural critic who is best known by the general public for his 1985 book about television, Amusing Ourselves to Death. ... Anatol Rapoport (born May 22, 1911) is a Russian-born American Jewish, mathematical psychologist. ... First edition by Simon & Schuster. ... Alfred Elton van Vogt (April 26, 1912 – January 26, 2000) was a Canadian-born science fiction author who was one of the most prolific, yet complex, writers of the mid-twentieth century Golden Age of the genre. ... Assignment in Eternity is an collection of science fiction novellas by Robert A. Heinlein published in 1953. ... Robert Anson Heinlein (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of hard science fiction. ... Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science (1957) was Martin Gardners second book, and has become a classic in the literature of entertaining skepticism. ... Martin Gardner (b. ... Psychologist and author Wendell Johnson was a proponent of General Semantics (or GS). ... Max Black (24 February 1909, Baku, Russian Empire [present-day Azerbaijan] – 27 August 1988, Ithaca, New York, United States) was a distinguished Anglo-American philosopher, who was a leading influence in analytic philosophy in the first half of the twentieth century. ... Allen Walker Read (1906 - October 16, 2002) was an American etymologist, best known for his studies into the words okay and fuck. His first work, Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy in Western North America: A Glossarial Study of the Low Element in the English Vocabulary, was privately published in Paris... [edit] Related Reading Trance-Formations: Neuro-Linguistic Programming and the Structure of Hypnosis by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, (1981). One of the important principles -- also widely used in political propaganda -- discussed in this book is that trance induction uses a language of pure process and lets the listener fill in all the specific content from their own personal experience. E.g. the hypnotist might say "imagine you are sitting in a very comfortable chair in a room painted your favorite color" but not "imagine you are sitting in a very comfortable chair in a room painted red, your favorite color" because then the listener might think "wait a second, red is not my favorite color." The work of the scholar of political communication Murray Edelman (1919-2001), starting with his seminal book The Symbolic Uses of Politics (1964), continuing with Politics as symbolic action: mass arousal and quiescience (1971), Political Language: Words that succeed and policies that fail (1977), Constructing the Political Spectacle (1988) and ending with his last book The Politics of Misinformation (2001) can be viewed as an exploration of the deliberate manipulation and obfuscation of the map-territory distinction for political purposes. Logic and contemporary rhetoric: the use of reason in everyday life by Howard Kahane (d. 2001). (Wadsworth: First edition 1971, sixth edition 1992, tenth edition 2005 with Nancy Cavender.) Highly readable guide to the rhetoric of clear thinking, frequently updated with examples of the opposite drawn from contemporary U.S. media sources. Doing Physics : how physicists take hold of the world by Martin H. Krieger, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992. A "cultural phenomenology of doing physics." The General Semantics connection is the relation to Korzybski's original motivation of trying to identify key features of the successes of mathematics and the physical sciences that could be extended into everyday thinking and social organization. Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, (1980). Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, (1997). The Art of Asking Questions by Stanley L. Payne, (1951) This book is a short handbook-style discussion of how the honest pollster should ask questions to find out what people actually think without leading them, but the same information could be used to slant a poll to get a predetermined answer. Payne notes that the effect of asking a question in different ways or in different contexts can be much larger than the effect of sampling bias, which is the error estimate usually given for a poll. E.g. (from the book) if you ask people "should government go into debt?" the majority will answer "No", but if you ask "Corporations have the right to issue bonds. Should governments also have the right to issue bonds?" the majority will answer "Yes". Richard Wayne Bandler (born February 24, 1950) is an American author on personal development. ... John Grinder, Ph. ... Murray J. Edelman (1919 – January 26, 2001) was an American political scientist known for his research on symbolic politics and political psychology. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Mark L. Johnson is Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Mark L. Johnson is Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon. ... [edit] External links Korzybski's General Semantics New York Society for General Semantics Institute of General Semantics European Society For General Semantics Australian Society for General Semantics Coro Foundation (Leadership training programs based on General Semantics. Notables include Gene Siskel, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Congressman Jerry Lewis) Theoretical foundations of general semantics Xenodochy General Semantics: A Tutorial Dave's Web Site Europe Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | Articles with weasel words | Human communication Eugene Gene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was one of the worlds most successful film critics. ... Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (born June 22, 1933) is currently the senior U.S. Senator from California, having held office as a senator since 1992. ... Charles Jeremy Jerry Lewis (born October 21, 1934), an American politician, has been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives since 1979, representing the 41st District of California. ...

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	General Semantics -- Korzybski (2317 words) The term general semantics originated with Alfred Korzybski in 1933 as the name for a general theory of evaluation, which in application turned out to be an empirical science, giving methods for general human adjustment in our private, public, and professional lives. General observations of daily human reactions demonstrate that many 'normal' persons are disoriented in space-time in varying degrees. Physicians familiar with general semantics have often treated such cases successfully, applying these new extensional methods in psycho-therapy to eliminate identification of the past with the present, etc., thus re-orienting the individual in space-time. General Semantics (563 words) General Semantics is a school of thought founded by Alfred Korzybski in about 1933 in response to his observations that most people had difficulty defining human and social discussions and problems and could almost never predictably resolve them into elements that were responsive to successful intervention or correction. One discovery of General Semantics was of the role of magic in popular culture, especially notable in the use of incantations as political and advertising slogans. General Semantics teaches that all linguistic representations discard most of reality ("The map is not the territory; the word is not the thing defined.") and in particular that much un-sanity is caused by adherence to the Aristotelian representation of two-valued either-or logic, which Korzybski saw as being built into Indo-European language structures.
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