About the book
Alfred Korzybski's 1933 work made general semantics known to the public and is regarded as his magnum opus. Among its most famous arguments is that no one reaches reality directly, since knowledge passes through the nervous system and through language. His best known dictum, that the map is not the territory, warns against confusing a model with the world. Ranging over neurology and psychology, Korzybski argues for non-Aristotelian logic in the sciences, holds that mathematics alone shares the structure of the world and the nervous system, and separates the words insane and unsane. He meant the 800-plus pages as a training manual, and the work remains in print in a sixth edition.
Tim O'Reilly says general semantics was the 1930s version of 1970s pop psychology but holds some great concepts, such as the map is not the territory, and the warning that people get stuck in concepts instead of returning to observation.
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Tim O'Reilly (Founder/O'Reilly Media)
Science and Sanity, by Alfred Korzybski. OK, General Semantics was the 30s equivalent of pop-psychology in the 70s, but there are some great concepts there. "The map is not the territory." The idea is that people get stuck in concepts and don't go back to observation. My friend George Simon applied General Semantics to psychology, and gave me a grounding in how to see people and to acknowledge what I saw that is the bedrock of my personal philosophy to this day. There are many popular introductions to General Semantics on the market, and also a fun science-fiction book, A.E. van Vogt's The World of Null-A.
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