General Semantics

In 1933, Count Alfred Korzybski wrote a huge, 3-part book called Science and Sanity and with it, he founded the field of General Semantics. Over the years, many people have taken what Korzybski wrote and further developed his original ideas...

NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) theorists sometimes trace their roots to Korzybski.

So, what is General Semantics? (Note: Korzybski would likely kick me on the rump for phrasing the question this way.)

I'll first explain what General Semantics (GS) is "not."

First - General Semantics differs significantly from "semantics." They share some letters, but GS goes far beyond semantics.

GS takes as its concern the *human response* to words, symbols, institutions, and more. General Semanticists differentiate between "words" and "things." A well know follower of GS, named J. Samuel Bois, coined the word "WIGO" which stands for "What Is Going On."

This term takes in to account much more than "things." It includes processes, our own internal states and much more.

An example may help to make this more clear. I hold in front of me an object. I open a part of this object, bring it to my lips and pour liquid into my mouth that I can then ingest.

Obviously, I'm talking about a "bottle of water."

But, the words "bottle of water" is NOT that which I "see." These are just words that refer to the object. And they relate to the physical object in much the same way as a map relates to a particular location.

Korzybski often said...and this saying has become something of a slogan for GS: "The map is not the territory." You can't get frostbite from a map of Antarctica and similarly, you can't relieve your thirst from the words "bottle of water."

You might ask, "So what?"

The answer lies in how we orient ourselves to the world. If we start with the map (or the words) we tend to believe that we *know* everything we need to know about WIGO in that area.

If we don't fully comprehend that the word is not the thing we are talking about, then we might find ourselves missing the true nature of the observation.

But, if we start with the object, with the physical thing in front of us, and call it whatevr we want...we're looking at it more objectively...

Then we can *consciously* allow our thoughts to come forth and associate with the object. These associations may not be accurate all the time, but if not, we can make more balanced choices and observations going forward.

There is a huge depth to the field of GS - much too much to go into here. Additional information can be found by "Googling" General Semantics (with the quotes) to start exploring.

Other resources are:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Semantics
Lots of good information.

Institute of General Semantics at http://www.general-semantics.org/.

Finally, you may want to visit your local online bookstore and look up the following authors:

Alfred Korzybski
J. Samuel Bois
S.I. Hayakawa
Stuart Chase
Harry Weinberg

Be prepared to keep and open mind, and to enhance your thinking and actions in ways you might not expect.

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