NationMaster - Encyclopedia: The map is not the territory

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.g., the pain from a stone falling on your foot is not the stone; one's opinion of a politician, favorable or unfavorable, is not that person; a metaphorical representation of a concept is not the concept itself; and so on. A specific abstraction or reaction does not capture all facets of its source — e.g., the pain in your foot does not convey the internal structure of the stone, you don't know everything that is going on in the life of a politician, etc., — and thus may limit an individual's understanding and cognitive abilities unless the two are distinguished. In language, a metaphor is a rhetorical trope defined as a direct comparison between two seemingly unrelated subjects. ... A concept is an abstract, universal idea, notion, or entity that serves to designate a category or class of entities, events, or relations. ...

The expression "the map is not the territory" first appeared in print in a paper that Alfred Korzybski gave at a meeting of the American Mathematical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1931: ^[1] Alfred Korzybski Alfred Korzybski was born on July 3, 1879 in Warsaw, Poland, and died on March 1, 1950) in Lakeville, Connecticut, USA. He came from an aristocratic family which had worked as mathematicians, scientists, and engineers for generations, and he chose to train as an engineer. ... The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and education, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards to mathematicians. ...

It is used as a premise in Korzybski's General Semantics, and in neuro-linguistic programming. 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. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

This concept also occurs in the discussion of exoteric and esoteric religions. Exoteric concepts are concepts which can be fully conveyed using descriptors and language constructs, such as mathematics. Esoteric concepts are concepts which cannot be fully conveyed except by direct experience. For example, a person who has never tasted an apple will never fully understand through language what the taste of an apple is. Only through direct experience - eating an apple - can that experience be fully understood. Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Mathematics Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mathematics Look up Mathematics on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikimedia Commons has more media related to: Mathematics Bogomolny, Alexander: Interactive Mathematics Miscellany and Puzzles. ... Binomial name Malus domestica Borkh. ...

The surrealist artist René Magritte illustrated this concept in a famous painting entitled The Betrayal of Images, which consists of a drawing of a pipe with the caption, Ceci n'est pas une pipe ("This is not a pipe"). Magrittes The Betrayal of Images (1928-9) Also known as The Treachery of Images, Ceci nest pas une pipe. Date 1928-29. ... Magrittes The Betrayal of Images (1928-9) Also known as The Treachery of Images, Ceci nest pas une pipe. Date 1928-29. ... Surrealism is an artistic movement and an aesthetic philosophy that aims for the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative powers of the subconscious. ... The Treachery Of Images (La trahison des images) (1928-1929) RenÃ© FranÃ§ois Ghislain Magritte (November 21, 1898 â€“ August 15, 1967) was a surrealist artist, born in Lessines, Belgium. ...

Lewis Carroll, in Sylvie and Bruno (1889), made a somewhat related point humorously with his description of a fictional map that had "the scale of a mile to the mile." A character notes some practical difficulties with such a map and states that "we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well." Photograph of Lewis Carroll taken by himself, with assistance Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (January 27, 1832 â€“ January 14, 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll, was a British author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. ... Harry Furniss title illustration for Sylvie and Bruno Concluded Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its 1893 follow-up Sylvie and Bruno Concluded form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime. ... 1889 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... A mile is any of several units of distance, or, in physics terminology, of length. ... A country, a land, is a geographical area that connotes an independent political entity, with its own government, administration, laws, often a constitution, police, military, tax rules, and population, who are one anothers countrymen. ...

David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest has a scene in which the students at Enfield Tennis Academy confuse the map with the territory while playing the game Eschaton, resulting in a breakdown of the structure of the game, mass confusion, and several injuries. David Foster Wallace (born February 21, 1962 in Ithaca, New York) is an American writer. ... Infinite Jest Infinite Jest (1996) is a critically acclaimed novel written by David Foster Wallace. ... Eschaton can refer to: the end of everything, as studied in the subject of eschatology A weblog written by Dr. Duncan B. Black (a. ...

References

^ "A Non-Aristotelian System and its Necessity for Rigour in Mathematics and Physics," paper presented before the American Mathematical Society at the New Orleans, Louisiana, meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. December 28, 1931. Reprinted in Science and Sanity, 1933, pp. 747 - 761. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an organization that promotes cooperation between scientists, defends scientific freedom, encourages scientific responsibility and supports scientific education for the betterment of all humanity. ...

See also