Science and Sanity and Alfred Korzybski
“The map is not the territory.”
― Alfred Korzybski
My review of the book Science and Sanity (1933). I am another reader whose life was changed by reading this book. I tripped over this dense tome in my searching (half-crazed) teenage phase of life. I think that is the only explanation for how I was able to slough through it. If I had first come across this today there is no way I would give it the time. Someone needs to do a condensed 200 page version. A copy has traveled with me in my life helping me to joyfully live more than 50 years. Each time I think about a problem in my life or in the world I remember what I learned in this book.
In addition to the other factors making this book a difficult read is the author’s application of mathematics and physics to explain, illustrate and justify his concepts. So in addition to the difficulty of the concepts, in themselves, is the additional issue of following arguments based in math and physics, which 99% of us don’t like wrapping our brains around. I was lucky I enjoy reading about math and physics, while not having studied much of the subjects in school.
I consider this book the most valuable member of my book collection, and it has profoundly influenced many aspects of my life.
Alfred Korzybski was a Polish engineer, mathematician, and philosopher, most famous for creating the theory of General Semantics. He was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1879 and died in 1950 in Connecticut, USA. His parents were aristocrats and he was extremely well educated in multiple languages. After serving in the Russian army for part of World War I he moved to North America and became a USA citizen in 1940. Science and Sanity, published in 1933.
The ideas conveyed by Korzybski include abstraction, time-binding, non-binary logic, and General Semantics. Science and Sanity covers a great deal about how what we say is an abstraction of the real world. It explains how humans are able to convey information, memories, and learning in words. It recommends that we get rid of black and white thinking, that either-or logic inherited from the Greek thinkers. General semantics is a set of tools meant to help us improve our thinking.
The saying “the map is not the territory” relates to concepts about the difference between human words and the real world. For example, saying Sally is a red-head does not define Sally. Sally is much more than just her hair color. What I took away from reading his book was that human language is a constructed tool which only approximately represents real events. Korzybski suggested several methods to try to handle the problem of language use. One method was using “is” in minimal ways, if at all. This addresses the point of identity in language. John is fat is an invalid statement. Another suggestion was what he called cortical pause. This method involves not jumping to conclusions when receiving information.
Korzybski described non-Aristotelian logic, a non-classical system of logic which rejects Aristotle’s premise of true or false values for propositions. This non-Aristotelian logic rejects the identity of two objects and insists that separate objects can only be similar. A related feature of this type of thinking is that a person or object is different at different times. Sally is different today from how she was yesterday. The system uses indexing to distinguish these different versions. So, Sally(1) is different from Sally(2).
Time-binding is a way of describing how humans have the ability to use knowledge from others. When a person learns some skill of bit of information that can be passed down through time to others. Therefore, time-binding expresses the way people can using language, writing, and books to pass information to future generations.
General semantics was a system of thinking that was meant to help people think better and improve themselves. Korzybski considered his proposals as empirically based and hoped general semantics would be accepted as a scientifically endorsed methodology. Korzybski warns that people can make themselves sick by misuse of language. A person can react to words that they hear or think about and change their attitudes and behaviors in negative ways. One goal of general semantics was to train people to not be harmed by language and abstract representations of the world.
These ideas from Science and Sanity feel like their time has come again. We are faced with hatred between people based on immigration status or color of their skin. Verbal taunts are launched at opponents. People are labeled in racial or other irrational manners to denigrate them. Perhaps we can take some important lessons from Korzybski about how language is a dangerous weapon and should be used more carefully.
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