Here are some insights on words from Alfred Korzybski who formulated a
Non-Aristotelian System (Null-A) [a system of logic and language which goes
beyond A logic just as non-Euclidian geometry and non-Newtonian physics goes
beyond.] His book is "Science and Sanity". Whenever you quote the phrase
'the map is not the terrain/territory.' you are actually referring back to
Korzybski who in 1933 published his book, 1st ed. He originated that
idea/concept/quote.
Null-A is short for the Non-Aristotelian system of General Semantics first
outlined by Alfred Korzybski in his book Science and Sanity: An introduction
to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, (1933 by The
International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Company, 1941 2nd edition,
1948 3rd edition and 1958 4th edition.) Some of the fundamental principles
of Korzybski's Null-A system are the following:
1."I want to make clear only that words are not the things spoken about, and
that there is no such thing as an object in absolute isolation." [pg. 50
from Science and Sanity]
2. "We must realize that structure, and structure alone is the only link
between languages and the empirical world." [pg. 50, ibid.]
3. "Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not
the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to
the territory, which accounts for its usefulness." [pg. 58, ibid.]
4. "If we reflect upon our languages, we find that at best they must be
considered only as maps. A word is not the object it represents; and
languages exhibit also this peculiar self-reflexiveness, that we can analyze
languages by linguistic means."[pg. 58, ibid.]
5. "[T]he common, A-system and language which we inherited from our
primitive ancestors differ entirely in structure from the well-known and
established 1933 structure of the world, ourselves and our nervous systems
included. Such antiquated map-language, by necessity, must lead us to
semantic disaster, as it imposes and reflects its unnatural structure on the
structure of our doctrines and institutions."[pg. 59, ibid.]
6. "As words are not the objects which they represent, structure and
structure alone, becomes the only link which connects verbal processes with
the empirical data. To achieve adjustment and sanity and the conditions
which follow from them, we must study structural characteristics of this
world first, and, then only, build languages of similar structure, instead
of habitually ascribing to the world the primitive structure of our
languages." [pg. 59, ibid.]
7."If there is no such thing as an absolutely isolate object, then, at
least, we have two objects, and we shall always discover some relation
between them, depending on our interest, ingenuity, and what not.
Obviously, for a man to speak about anything at all, always presupposes two
objects, at least; namely the object spoken about and the speaker, and so a
relation between the two is always present. Even in delusions, illusions
and hallucinations, the situation is not changed; because our immediate
feelings are also un-speakable and not words." [ pg. 61, ibid.]
I find Null-A an important tool in understanding reality & what we can know
about it.
Gary Jaron "People shape, and are shaped by, ideas."
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