A book that helped me understand how Trump and Hitler were able to rise to power is "The Denial of Death" by Ernest Becker, a Pulizer Prize Winner. It was copyrighted in 1973.
General Semantics
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Aug 17, 2017
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#3
The rise of Hitler's National Socialism was one of the events that inspired Korzybski's work. He was particularly troubled by the mis-use of language (in the form of 'propaganda') that was so greatly expanded by Goebbels & Co.
Wikipedia has an interesting article on Becker's book. Have you seen it?
Mar 31, 2018
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#4
I just came across an interesting website put together by a gentleman named Steven Lewis. I invite all of you to check it out, at General Semantics homepage of Steven Lewis.
He seems to be really on the ball!
May 22, 2018
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#5
(5/22/18) Related... but not strictly General Semantics! Here's an engrossing 2 and a half hours of Joe Rogan and Professor Jordan Peterson on YouTube: Joe Rogan Experience #1070 - Jordan Peterson (but there's so much more).
I wonder if Professor Peterson is familiar with Korzybski or GS. I'm frustrated to be in the last part of life's journey, with so little time left, yet so much to learn and try to share! I wish I'd known about Peterson fifty years ago...
Aug 25, 2019
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#6
Education, politics, and Western Civilization all cry out for the intelligent discussion of many questions: “What can we trust? Why is the 'information ecology' so damaged, and what would it take to make it healthy? [These are] fundamental question[s], because without good sensemaking [the heart of Korzybski's general semantics], we cannot even begin to act in the world. It is also a central concern in what many are calling the "meaning crisis", because what is meaningful is connected to what is real.”
The War on Sensemaking… (Rebel Wisdom on YouTube, 1:48:49) Premiered on Aug 19, 2019. There's a lot to unpack and think about in this video. I took three or four distinct (but rewarding) sessions to listen to it all, but I plan to see it again in the near future.
“Daniel Schmachtenberger [a new discovery for me] is an evolutionary philosopher - his central interest is civilization design: developing new capacities for sense-making and choice-making, individually and collectively, to support conscious sustainable evolution.”
For more from Daniel, he blogs on these topics at https://civilizationemerging.com/
He’s also the director of Research and Development at Neurohacker Collective https://neurohacker.com/ethos
Oct 10, 2019
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#7
(10/11/19)
"What do you know? ...and how do you know that you know?"
-- S. I. Hayakawa
epistemology (ĭ-pĭs′tə-mŏl′ə-jē)
n.
"The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of knowledge, its presuppositions and foundations, and its extent and validity."
One of our biggest problems, today (2019), is "faulty epistemology." In fact, most people have never heard the word, or thought about it.
Jul 1, 2020
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#8
Amazon.com has a new Kindle version of Korzybski's first book. It is available for $0.99, and may be read with their free app. It replaces a previous, unsatisfactory kindle version that was plagued by many annoying problems and a lack of the essential diagrams.
This book is where he set out his earliest thoughts as he developed 'general semantics,' called 'Human Engineering' in this volume. He was never really satisfied with the name 'general semantics,' either, but after the publication of Science and Sanity he was kind of stuck with it. Fortunately Manhood of Humanity is easier to read and understand than Science and Sanity, and is a useful introduction for those unfamiliar with Korzybski or his ground-breaking work.
Here are a couple of useful reviews from Amazon readers which may serve as an additional introduction:
Joseph Rubin
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2014
In August 1949, I turned age 19, and had spent 2 months studying Science and Sanity, because I felt I needed to learn how to think and communicate more effectively. I began undergraduate studies with math/physics interests and turned also to psychology that led to my earning a living for me and my family.
This background predisposed me to appreciate Korzybski's development of ideas in his book, Manhood of Humanity. Guided in part by the idea of mathematical dimensions seems to me to be a good beginning-structure for Korzybski to have worked out the ideas of this book. Simply speaking, animals are 2-dimensional in capacity and are called "space-binders." Humans follow a higher natural law, are 3-dimensional in capacity, and are called 'time-binders." Time-binders have the capacity to acquire skills and communicate these in clear-cut precise form to the advantage of future generations.
An additional framework for Manhood of Humanity is that some dangerous technological achievements by humans have exponentially exceeded the rate of development of humanistic achievements and technologies. When imbalances between these types of capabilities reach a critical point, man's energies and time turn to engaging in warfare with woeful destruction of life and property.
The aim of Korzybski has been to "engineer" a system for society that can lead only in the direction of peaceful and productive progress.
I have not finished reading Manhood of Humanity, and I naturally assume that more details follow in this book that will shed more light on how the mission might be fulfilled.
I have a 16 page discussion about General Semantics. published by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.This discussion provides a beautiful overview of Korzybski's ideas and areas of publication. It is quite important to the credibility of Korzybski's futuristic outlook that, "many recognized specialists in the knowledge areas where Korzybski claimed to have anchored general semantics...biology, epistemology, mathematics, neurology,physics, psychiatry, etc., supported his work in his lifetime, including..." and 9 names are cited.
I am 83 years of age now, an am continuing my self-directed studies that began when I was 18.
This background predisposed me to appreciate Korzybski's development of ideas in his book, Manhood of Humanity. Guided in part by the idea of mathematical dimensions seems to me to be a good beginning-structure for Korzybski to have worked out the ideas of this book. Simply speaking, animals are 2-dimensional in capacity and are called "space-binders." Humans follow a higher natural law, are 3-dimensional in capacity, and are called 'time-binders." Time-binders have the capacity to acquire skills and communicate these in clear-cut precise form to the advantage of future generations.
An additional framework for Manhood of Humanity is that some dangerous technological achievements by humans have exponentially exceeded the rate of development of humanistic achievements and technologies. When imbalances between these types of capabilities reach a critical point, man's energies and time turn to engaging in warfare with woeful destruction of life and property.
The aim of Korzybski has been to "engineer" a system for society that can lead only in the direction of peaceful and productive progress.
I have not finished reading Manhood of Humanity, and I naturally assume that more details follow in this book that will shed more light on how the mission might be fulfilled.
I have a 16 page discussion about General Semantics. published by Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.This discussion provides a beautiful overview of Korzybski's ideas and areas of publication. It is quite important to the credibility of Korzybski's futuristic outlook that, "many recognized specialists in the knowledge areas where Korzybski claimed to have anchored general semantics...biology, epistemology, mathematics, neurology,physics, psychiatry, etc., supported his work in his lifetime, including..." and 9 names are cited.
I am 83 years of age now, an am continuing my self-directed studies that began when I was 18.
Timothy Wilken
In 1921, Alfred Korzybski, a mathematician and scientist, classified Life with precise and accurate operational definitions of plants, animals, and humans. He defined the plants as energy-binders, the animals as space-binders, and we humans as time-binders. Korzybski explained that:
The plants adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of energy. The animals adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of space. And we humans adapt to our environment through our awareness and control of time.
Plants are energy-binders. The power of energy-binding is transformation, growth, and organization.
Energy-binders have the ability to transform solar energy to organic chemical energy. The plant is a solar collector. It spreads its leaves and harvests the ultraviolet rays directly from the sun.
Energy-binders have the power of growth.The plant draws water and minerals from the soil organizes this energy and nutrients into growth through cell division. The growth of the energy-binder and its self-propagation through progeny are the resultant of cell division - if the cells remain together we have growth; if they split off into a separate entity we have progeny. Energy-bindings have the power of organization. Organization possible through the ability to time the release and binding of energy. Timing based on knowledge - energy knowledge.
Animals are space-binders. The power of space-binding is mobility - the ability to move about in space. This is not the simple motion of plants. This is mobility - running, jumping, leaping, swinging, swimming, creeping, stalking, crawling, diving, and flying.
The space-binder moves towards a specific and attainable goal - water, food, a mate, shelter - and in any direction. The mobility of the space-binder is not just motion, it is controlled motion. The space-binder moves in search of food. For grazing animals the quest is continuous; for predators, occasional but more strenuous. And all animals are under constant threat from natural enemies. The animal, therefore, requires sense awareness - awareness of the space in which he lives.
We humans are Time-binders. We possess the power to understand and through that understanding to control and dominate planet Earth.
The power of Time-binding is to understand - to observe and remember change over time. Understanding comes from the awareness of time - an awareness that allows humans to experience time as sequential or linear.
Tomorrow follows today as today followed yesterday. Time always moves from the past to the present, from the present to the future. Change is bound in time. And time-binders understand change in space because they are aware of time.
When humans understand change they can understand cause and effect, they make scientific discovery. They make knowledge. When humans make choices based on knowledge, they make inventions. They make technology. Time-binders are the creators of knowledge and technology. When knowledge is incorporated into matter-energy, it becomes a tool. Humans are above all else toolmakers.
Time-binding is embedded in just about every thing associated with humans and yet most humans are unaware of the very power that makes them human. We humans catalogue and store our various knowings in libraries, universities, colleges, data banks, and information services. We are time-binders and the mark of human power is everywhere.
This was Korzybski's gift to humanity. An understanding of Life, and a definition of the form called human.
The plants adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of energy. The animals adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of space. And we humans adapt to our environment through our awareness and control of time.
Plants are energy-binders. The power of energy-binding is transformation, growth, and organization.
Energy-binders have the ability to transform solar energy to organic chemical energy. The plant is a solar collector. It spreads its leaves and harvests the ultraviolet rays directly from the sun.
Energy-binders have the power of growth.The plant draws water and minerals from the soil organizes this energy and nutrients into growth through cell division. The growth of the energy-binder and its self-propagation through progeny are the resultant of cell division - if the cells remain together we have growth; if they split off into a separate entity we have progeny. Energy-bindings have the power of organization. Organization possible through the ability to time the release and binding of energy. Timing based on knowledge - energy knowledge.
Animals are space-binders. The power of space-binding is mobility - the ability to move about in space. This is not the simple motion of plants. This is mobility - running, jumping, leaping, swinging, swimming, creeping, stalking, crawling, diving, and flying.
The space-binder moves towards a specific and attainable goal - water, food, a mate, shelter - and in any direction. The mobility of the space-binder is not just motion, it is controlled motion. The space-binder moves in search of food. For grazing animals the quest is continuous; for predators, occasional but more strenuous. And all animals are under constant threat from natural enemies. The animal, therefore, requires sense awareness - awareness of the space in which he lives.
We humans are Time-binders. We possess the power to understand and through that understanding to control and dominate planet Earth.
The power of Time-binding is to understand - to observe and remember change over time. Understanding comes from the awareness of time - an awareness that allows humans to experience time as sequential or linear.
Tomorrow follows today as today followed yesterday. Time always moves from the past to the present, from the present to the future. Change is bound in time. And time-binders understand change in space because they are aware of time.
When humans understand change they can understand cause and effect, they make scientific discovery. They make knowledge. When humans make choices based on knowledge, they make inventions. They make technology. Time-binders are the creators of knowledge and technology. When knowledge is incorporated into matter-energy, it becomes a tool. Humans are above all else toolmakers.
Time-binding is embedded in just about every thing associated with humans and yet most humans are unaware of the very power that makes them human. We humans catalogue and store our various knowings in libraries, universities, colleges, data banks, and information services. We are time-binders and the mark of human power is everywhere.
This was Korzybski's gift to humanity. An understanding of Life, and a definition of the form called human.
Feb 8, 2021
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#10
I've said from the start that there were many similarities between Hitler and Trump's rise to power.
Both villified the media and were enemies of free speech. Each had to have scapegoats. Hitler hated Jews and murdered 6 million of them. Trump hated Immigrants and is a racist bigot!
Feb 9, 2021
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#11
Hi Pam, Glad to see you posting here. However, I think you are greatly oversimplifying your comparisons. Unfortunately, terms like "the media" and "enemies of free speech" are abstractions of a very high order, and essentially useless in this case. Also, I have seen no evidence that Donald Trump hates "immigrants" or is a "racist bigot" (another high order abstraction), only unsubstantiated assertions by "left leaning" individuals and media outlets.
The corruption of language was one of Korzybski's primary concerns. I believe you might find a deeper study of general semantics to be interesting, "eye opening," and ultimately very useful in making sense of contemporary issues.
Feb 9, 2021
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#12
He banned muslims from flying into the US. He separated immigrant children from their parents and put the children in cages. All journalism he disagreed with became " fake news" Don't agree that I have corrupted the language.
Feb 9, 2021
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#13
Hey Pam, First of all let me apologize, if you thought I meant you have corrupted the language. Politicians and media organizations are the major culprits here (although others are at fault as well). Due to lack of adequate education on the subject, the public is the unwitting victim of such misuse and propaganda. However, now I must qualify your assertions:
The so-called "Muslim ban" was an executive order attempting to deal with an extremely complicated problem. It has been covered extensively from many points of view. Wikipedia has several articles on it with sometimes-conflicting takes. I found the one titled Executive Order 13769 to be a useful first look. Breitbart had another, called Fact Check: The Travel Ban is Neither a 'Muslim Ban,' Nor Unconstitutional. Let them be a point of departure for further investigations, if needed.
The idea that Trump's administration put children in cages is an outright lie (again, about a very complex issue). The widely broadcast photos were from 2014 (the Obama Administration). This Fox News story gives the essentials And yet the lie persists even today and is a prime example of what is meant by "fake news." Here's another story from pjmedia.com. Again, these only scratch the surface of a necessary practice that has been in place for decades, to protect children from exploitation, among other things.
I have found so much of the media to be disingenuous on a regular basis that I routinely seek wider sources and differing points of view before accepting anything as "truth." Even then I remain open to further evidence one way or another. I have tried to develop what Ernest Hemingway called "a built-in, shockproof, 'crap-detector.' It keeps being tested every day.
"A mind is like a parachute, it only works when open." --Anon
Feb 9, 2021
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#14
The BBC reported on the kids in cages and they are a reputable news source. I saw pictures of demonstrators outside these prisons. President Biden is now trying to re-unite these children with their parents. I saw pics of a little girl about 2 year old being dragged away from her Mom. I found that scene haunting and upsetting. I am capable of critical thinking and have never accepted crap without checking thesources.
Feb 9, 2021
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#15
Yes, Children being separated from parents is upsetting. As is children being smuggled and used for drug and/or sex trafficking. The problem is trying to sort out who's reporting accurately and who's promoting an agenda. I suspect everyone does a little (or a lot) of the latter. And equally important... who withholds information that doesn't fit their narrative of events. It's part of the reason why I am skeptical of so much that I see purporting to be news.
Feb 14, 2021
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#16
I am also sceptical and get my news from varied but respected sources eg BBC, Sky News, Telegraph and many others.
Feb 15, 2021
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#17
One of my favorite "thinkers" and teachers is Thomas Sowell, who recently turned 90. I just borrowed his book, Conquests and Cultures: An International History (1998), which I had not read yet. Fifty-some pages into it I had learned that it was 'part three' of a trilogy, and had become so engrossed in its analysis that I ordered all three from Amazon, as I could already tell that I will re-read them to help me to better understand so much of what is currently happening in the world. Amazon provides a free peek into the book as well as many outstanding reviews.
Without himself being a student of Korzybski's, His clear thinking and analysis represents the kind of historical understanding that we could all benefit from. I own and value a number of Sowell's books and can recommend them all to lovers of clarity in thinking and writing.
Jun 10, 2021
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#18
Just started re-reading this abridged version of the original classic. Happily, the introductory material is viewable online, at Amazon.
"Selections from Science and Sanity [1948, 2nd Ed. 2010] represents Alfred Korzybski's authorized abridgement of his magnum opus, Science and Sanity [1933]: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics. This second edition, published in response to the recent Korzybski revival, adds new introductory material and a revised index, providing an accessible introduction to Korzybski's arguments concerning the need for a non-Aristotelian approach to knowledge, thought, perception, and language, to coincide with our non-Newtonian physics and non-Euclidean geometries, to Korzybski's practical philosophy, applied psychology, pragmatics of human communication, and educational program. Selections from Science and Sanity serves as an excellent introduction to general semantics as a system intended to aid the individual's adjustment to reality, enhance intellectual and creative activities, and alleviate the many social ills that have plagued humanity throughout our history." --Amazon.com
May 2, 2022
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#19
(5/2/22) I have recently re-read two science-fiction classics by, A. E. Van Vogt, that I originally encountered in high school. I remember that it was the first time I encountered any of the ideas first developed by Korzybski in the 1920s and '30s. The first book was The World of Null-A (sometimes The World of Ā) and the sequel was The Players of Null-A, (sometimes The Pawns of Null-A, or Ā). While the story may leave something to be desired by modern standards (2022), I am forever in debt for its effect in introducing me and many others to Korzybski's 'general semantics.'
While I have never received any formal training in that early non-aristotelian system and discipline, I have observed, with great interest, its slow (too slow in my mind) percolation into many areas of awareness (although not nearly enough) in our contemporary world. A number of current thinkers and writers have been influenced by the observations and ideas of Korzybski and those who have continued to develop and, when needed, revise and expand his original findings.
I believe that the application of his observations are of such a fundamental importance to our future development (and possibly survival) as a species that I cannot help attempting to share my awareness as my limited contribution to that 'uniquely human' activity that Korzybski called 'time-binding.' It is with that in mind that I begin to reprint here, as quotes, the headers (originally labeled 'NULL ABSTRACTS') from each chapter of the second book, which originally brought me to general semantics. All are copied from Van Vogt, A. E., The Players of Null-A, 1948, Gregg Press Edition, June 1977
I
NULL ABSTRACTS
“A normal human nervous system is potentially superior to that of any animal’s. For the sake of sanity and balanced development, each individual must learn to orientate himself to the real world around him. There are methods of training by which this can be done.” p.5
II
NULL ABSTRACTS
“General Semantics enables the individual to make the following adjustments to life: (1) He can logically anticipate the future. (2) He can achieve according to his capabilities. (3) His behaviour is suited to his environment.” p.12
III
NULL ABSTRACTS
“In order to be sane and adjusted as a human being, an individual must realize that he cannot know all there is to know. It is not enough to understand this limitation intellectually; the understanding must be an orderly and conditioned process, ‘unconscious’ as well as ‘conscious’. Such a conditioning is essential to the balanced pursuit of knowledge of the nature of matter and life.” p,18
May 4, 2022
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#20
IV
NULL ABSTRACTS
“A child’s mind, lacking a developed cortex, is virtually incapable of discrimination. The child eventually makes many false evaluations of the world. Many of these false-to-facts judgments are conditioned into the nervous system on the ‘unconscious’ level, and can be carried over into adulthood. Hence, we have a ‘well educated’ man or woman who reacts in an infantile fashion.
― Van Vogt, A. E., The Players of Null-A, 1948, Gregg Press Edition, June 1977, Null-Abstracts, p.23
Since this Forum topic was initiated in 2017, I have come across several useful internet sites that can help sort out this complex subject. More will be added as they become available:
The Institute of General Semantics
New York Society for General Semantics
European Society for General Semantics added 2018
Australian General Semantics Society added 2018
The Korzybski Institute for the Study of General Semantics
Korzybski Files (Bruce Kodish)
Korzybski's General Semantics (Steven Lewis)
This Is Not That (Steve Stockdale) added 6/18/22
I added this forward in 2018. The original post follows:
I guess when I originally posted a note mentioning Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) I knew in my mind that most people wouldn't recognize the name. The current world situation was what reminded me of this man, and his work, which I first encountered as a callow youth during the tumultuous '60s. His work (and other early teachers) allowed me to change my life and come to a greater understanding of the increasingly complex problems mankind faces. Wow! Sounds heavy! The current explosion of world-wide violent conflicts and political upheavals prompted me to begin re-aquainting myself with his works (and others') in the hopes of better understanding the problems, for without understanding the problems there can be no hope of progress toward solutions.
Korzybski was a Polish-American scientist, engineer, and independent scholar who formulated, what he ultimately called "general semantics" (not to be confused with "semantics," a branch of linguistics) for the first time in Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, (published originally in 1933).
He had written an earlier work, Manhood of Humanity: The Science and Art of Human Engineering (1921), in which he first set forth his analyses of the misunderstandings which cause most, if not all, of the great problems faced by mankind.
Wikipedia has reasonable (and improving as of 2022) articles to introduce both Korzybski and the discipline of general semantics. As some of you may be products of an earlier (and probably more rigorous) educational system than that of today you should have little trouble with Manhood of Humanity. However, Science and Sanity (about 900 pp.) has to be the most difficult book I have ever read. Therefore I recommend that you first find some of the later writers who helped popularize general semantics by making it both accessible and entertaining. These include Stuart Chase (The Tyranny of Words, 1938; S.I. Hayakawa (Language in Thought and Action, 5th Ed. 1991), Neil Postman (Crazy talk, stupid talk: how we defeat ourselves by the way we talk and what to do about it, 1976), and Wendell Johnson (People in Quandaries: the semantics of personal adjustment, 1946). There are, of course, others.
It is my hope that more familiarity with the tools of general semantics will enable us, as individuals, to better understand how we are manipulated by the lies, half-truths, and omissions of propagandists and others who would seek to control us, and in so doing resist them. It will also enable us to more effectively express ourselves and to seek a more effective understanding of others, and of the world around us.
It may even help us to improve our chess!