INTRODUCTION TO ALFRED KORZYBSKI'S

GENERAL SEMANTICS

H. BULLA DE VILLARET

LE COURRIER DU LIVRE

Summary of the first part and translation : Isabelle Baudron

_________

DEFINITION:

Semantics : study of the meanings of the terms of the vocabulary and of its modifications.

General semantics of Korzybski : general theory of non-elementalist evaluation.

The expression : "General Semantic " is associated that with " non-aristotelian logic" or " non-aristotelian system".

I

Animal society : static society compaired to human society, fixed behaviour.

Human society : elaboration of cultures and evolution of civilisations :

Every generation transmits, enriches and shapes an acquired knowledge to the next generation which is going to modify it and increase it in its turn.

Definition of each species which reveals the basic characteristic of each of them and makes it different from the two others :

- plants : bind betwen them energies : "energy-binders",

- animals : bind betwen them points located in space : "space-binders",

- mankind : besides energies and points in space, binds between them moments in time beyond his own life : man is a "time-binder" : thanks to human language, points can be thrown between people separated by space-time distance.

The way we think and the way we express ourselves are intimately bound. The power of suggestion of words is such as it easily influences the mixing of the feelings and ideas which follows from our different behaviours.

The disorder which reigns in the use we make of language leads to a corresponding disorder in our thinking, our reflexion.

A confused or incorrect thinking has repercutions on the ways we express ourselves, and is reflected in them, hence uncertain or distorted verbal communication between individuals.

II

In our civilisation, we got a high degree of technical development; in other domains, primitive level :

- in technical domain : mathematical language, the structure of which is similar to the structure of facts.

- in the domain of institutions and human affairs, there is a discrepancy between the structure of facts and the one of language.

- mathematical language has a structure which is similar

- general semantics teaches to use the brain as if we were using a mathematic language.

III

What does "a language the structure of which is similar to the structure of facts" means ?

- In aristotelian point of view, language is considered as the mirror of reality. Hence there is no distance between what we live and what we say about it.

- In a non-A point of view : language is a verbal map : it cannot pretend to account for the facts totally, still less with a complete accuracy :

• Language symbolically represents what we live, hence a new attitude towards language.
• Mathematical language : few risks of distorsion during communication, few risks of misunderstanding.
• Current language : the significant, symbolic content of each word differs according to different persons or different situations.

Hence an attitude of vigilance, of suspicion towards the use of this language.

è To put in question ones own habits of symbolization.

IV

  A map requires a cartographer and a ground.

  Relations or set of relations between them:

  Relations between the observer and observed object in the history of the Western thought: three periods:

1) Greek or metaphysical or pre-scientific period : Aristlote - Euclide : the observed object is not important, the observer is all.

  2) Classical or semi-scientific period : Descartes - Newton: the observer hardly counts, the observed object is really significant.

  3) Mathematical or scientific period : Korzybski - Einstein : all what a man can know is a phenomenon due jointly to the observer and so that he observes.

The observer: (the cartographer, ourselves)

• The traditional prospect isolates psychism, the body and the surrounding.
• The non-A prospect considers that man constitutes a psycho-somatic whole in his surrounding which penetrates him and to which he reacts.

è - not possible to consider separately the body and psychism, spirit and matter.

 NON-ELEMENTALIST attitude: effort not to isolate the ones from the others factors or elements which are structurally connected the ones to the others.

 è the observer approaches what he observes with the totality of his psychosomatic organization. The characteristics of this organization are due to the influences received from the environment.

• The human nervous structure tests feelings which it organizes into perceptions = > these perceptions are tributary of :
• the possibilities
• and of the limits of the nervous structure

è what man notices is locates at the meeting point ;

• of a human nervous structure
• of the components of the ground.  
• Human lived data require the presence of a human being. Independently of us, " our world", " our reality " do not exist.

Example: the tree, while falling, causes waves; so that a noise, to be perceived,requires the presence of a human or animal nervous structure. There is no noise if there is no receiver to perceive it, only waves.

• There are as many " worlds " as different nervous structures : the world of the toad is different from the world of the fly, which is different from the world of the bird, etc.

è the ground appears in a way conditioned by our possibilities of perceptions; those ones depend on our organic structures.

 è our nervous system, starting from the components of the ground, makes an abstraction, by organizing these components, hence the perception of colors, of sounds, of shapes.

• Perceptive illusions : when the nervous system is not able to apprehend processes. E.g.: the ventilator which turns looks like a solid disc.
• Among the various stimuli which are offered to us, we make a choice, and this choice depends partly on our former experiments. Unconsciously, we find in the ground, up to a certain point, which, by former experiments, we are brought to seek in it.
• " the flower is red ": one allots to an object a quality as if it were intrinsic for him, quality which only one human nervous structure can establish between this flower and this structure è false identification.

è in non-A language : " the flower appears as red to me. "

V

• A language : " George Durand is an egoist. "
• Non-A language : " In such circumstances and with regard to such person, G.D. behaved in a way which, according to my own standards, appears as egoistic to me. "
• A language : judgment of value.
• Non-A language : takes in account the person who speaks, his preferences, his opinions , his standards, takes in account the fact that he sees a situation under one particular day.

 Silent premices : data provided by the culture within which we live, the education we received, which have not being clarified verbally at the time when they slip into the appreciations carried. Remain half-conscious, even unconscious.

 " do not forget that he is a Jew ": ready-made image with rests on prejudices, irrational antipathies; conventional image of the " Jew ". è

• to replace the verb " to be " by " to appear as ".
• to express oneself in terms of behavior rather than of quality.

VI

 OBSERVATION OF THE GROUND :

- its various elements,

- the order they follow ,

- the relations which can bind them,

- the structure they compose .

• In his observations the scientist leans in particular on behaviors the structure of which he will attempt to detect.
• He will wonder then which must be the structure of the involved elements to allow such a structure of their behaviors.
• He will make then inferences which will enable him to build assumptions.
• On the basis of these assumptions , he will build up prevision on their the behaviors.
• He will then have to go back to the observation of the latter to examine whether these previsions are carried out and if, consequently, his assumptions are in conformity with the structure of the facts.

è Behaviors è their structure è structure of the elements in presence compared to the structure of their behavior è inferences è assumptions è previsions concerning the behaviors è observation of these behaviours for checking.

• Any real acquisition of knowledge rests on a study of the relations, a research of the structures.
• Examination of ourselves and of the world in perpetual change: ceaseless dynamic process, constant modifications.
• Sometimes certain changes are too small compared to our possibilities of perception or are carried out too slowly è we are unaware of these changes è errors in our evaluations, our ways of reacting.

• the object (pencil) linguistically needs space, otherwise it would not be a pencil but a mathematical point, a fiction.
• it also needs verbally time, otherwise there would be no pencil but a flash.

VII

Structural differential, model of Korzybski.

Drawing extract from "Science and Sanity", p.388

The plan at the top represents the level of the event, the disc, the level of object, and the rectangle, the level of the word .

Lines connecting between them the characteristics

- plan: event

- disc: object

- rectangle: word

  or of the two first levels: characteristics which were taken in account in the development that our nervous system made from the elements which were proposed to it.

 Lines which do not end nowhere: characteristics left aside.

 è   * Taking in account certain characteristics and leaving others aside consists in making an ABSTRACTION.

* The structural differential teaches how to distinguish the levels of abstraction.

On the drawing :

• the level of the events: escapes to any direct hold.
• the level of objects : we take hold on it but in itself it remains inexpressible.
• the verbal level : we use words to designate objects.

è

* the object is not the event

* the object is indicated verbally by such a word.

 è

a) A MAP IS NOT the TERRITORY:

The words we use to show the objects and to qualify them thereafter, to classify them, judge them, are not on the same level as these objects themselves.

  b) A MAP DOES NOT REPRESENT THE WHOLE TERRITORY:

Each level is an abstraction starting from the previous one; there will always be characteristics which will be left aside.

• When we have well assimilated the concept that the word is not the object, we get used to see in it only one symbol representing this object.
• While if we identify the word with the object, we tend to react to the word as to a signal before asking ourselves, or without asking ourselves what is in fact the object which the word stands for.
• Reactions to the words rather than to the objects or the events are used in political and commercial propaganda.
• The reaction to the word as to a signal and not as to a symbol mainly comes from the power of evocation of the word. This one is mainly related to psychic factors: it rises from the emotions which were linked to the words during our intellectual and psychic development.
• The words of the mother language are learnt at the time of situations which provide them a psychological context.

è a word leads in us to a reaction to a context which does not exist anymore, but that we project on the new context offered by the present situation : space-time confusion.

è Consider what occurs HERE AND NOW.

• A too broad use of the verb "to be" leads to false identifications, and to a confusion between the various levels of abstraction.

 4 uses:

1) " is " of existence : I am: to be = to exist, to be

2) to be = auxiliary : it is done.

  3) " is " of identity : " man is an animal ", " George is a workman ":

to be = to identify in an erroneous way different levels of abstraction, by connecting 2 names which are put on the same level; little difference between the non-verbal levels and the verbal level: language A. è "to be" in language non-A = to be able to be indicated, called, to be classified like.

  4) " is " of attribution : the rose is red: to be = connects a name and one or more adjectives, implies that the characteristics indicated by the adjectives exist in the thing or the person represented by the name: language A.

  è "to be" in language non-A: such person (thing) seems to me, we judge such thing in such way.

Uses 3 and 4: excessive concentration on one or a small number of characteristics, gives them an exaggerated importance; one then takes the part for the whole or one sees the whole through a partial object.

• The diagram of the structural differential shows the natural order of abstraction which should be followed to think and to express oneself correctly:

2) the object

1. the word : verbal level

• The first level of abstraction of the event to the object is the only one accessible to animals which think by images: they do not have access at the higher levels of abstraction è cannot build culture, nor civilization.

è difference in structure between the development which the animals can make and that men can make, hence the name of the model of Korzybski: structural differential.

• The model of structural differential :

- presents the structure of general semantics,

- while differentiating its substructures: different levels or orders of abstraction which constitute it,

- while assigning to them relative values according to the importance which they have for us.

• Acquisition of the conscience of abstracting :

To be conscious to make an abstraction means we do not forget that one takes in account only one part of the characteristics, those which we perceive more easily than others, which strike us particularly, which are selected according to our former experiments or knowledge, of our tastes, of our sensitivity, our preferences, of our interests, etc..., and that one leaves some others aside, which are often characteristics suitable for the individuality of the object and which, in certain cases, can have to play a role which we had not suspected first of all.

VIII

 In the structural differential :

- parabolic plan: world of events,

- disc: world of event-significations or world of objects.

2 non-verbal , " silent ", " objective " levels ".

- verbal levels: higher levels of abstraction seeking to account, more or less adequately, of the non-verbal levels; they use static representations to give an account of a dynamic reality;

• On the level of the object, perception is an inexpressible experiment.
• To speak always means to interpret the world. But the living contact with this one remains beyond verbal field.
• We need to train to seek a greater richness of contact with what is perceived, lived, to give sensitivity time to fully devellop before seeking to express anything. 
• We see more images evoked by the words that lived data themselves, we really do not know to watch , nor really to listen.

 è exercise: to look at an object while trying to see it well, without saying anything about it.

• increases the possibilities of creative inspiration, inspiration then interpreted and expressed by language or other artistic form.
• involves a practice of silence è enriches the inner experiment.
• helps to establish a distance between the object and the words which are used to designate it è avoids to pass too quickly from the non-verbal levels to the verbal levels and to stick on the object a more or less satisfying label.

attitude of investigation, expectancy preceding our reaction, our answer.

• It is used to wait :

- to get the meaning of what is perceived before formulating it verbally.

- to be more informed on what it covers before accepting a verbal formulation: "let us see what it's all about."

• It is necessary :

- for a correct evaluation,

- for an effective and adapted action,

- for our psycho-somatic health.

• It avoids to react to the words as signals, makes us able to see them like symbols.

è it helps to dissociate the object and the word which symbolizes it from associations and evocations related to the word.

è it prevents from unaccurate semantic reactions.

 SEMANTIC REACTION : reaction to the significance of a term provoked by its use. It affects the organism at the level of the electro-colloidal cells of living tissues è repercussions on the whole psycho-somatic organization which can involve certain diseases.

  The intensity or the nature of power of evocation of the words varies from one person to another. It is:

• dependent on the experience of each person,
• influenced by silent postulates.

è a word seldom has the same meaning for two different people.

è the language seldom allows to wake up in others the non-verbal impressions corresponding to what we ourselves experiment on our own non-verbal levels.

Exercise: How to give an account of a gustatory experiment, an aesthetic emotion.

IX

 OBSERVATION OF THE SUBJECT :

 " facts ": what we live, observe, is a common product of an imperceptible reality and nervous structures of the observer.

• The solid " fact " is a myth; we cannot provide a description which does not carry our personal mark.
• In many experiments of laboratory, one takes account of the " personal coefficient of the experimenter. "
• In everyday life a same fact can be perceived and described in a different way from one person to another one.

 è From a non-A point of view, one takes in account the distances which exist:

 Need for a method which helps to observe the objects correctly, because on this correct observation will depend what we will be able to discover of their structure and their behavior.

 To adopt an EXTENTIONAL ORIENTATION:

instead of starting from the common property or small group properties common with the help of which we hold to classify and define the objects, we will remember that each object is single in its kind and will show characteristics which will differentiate it from all the others.

  * The step which encourages us to note initially similarities often leads to confusions: abusive generalizations and over generalizations: " young people ", " women ", " politicians ", etc..., considered in general.

  * The relation which is established between the object and us leads ourselves to allot to this one certain characteristics.

If our orientation is not extensional :

- certain characteristics correspond to the structure of " what occurs " on the level of the object,

- certain characteristics do not correspond to it, are wrongfully allotted to him on the basis of preliminary definitions,

- the relation could enable us to see certain aspects of the structure which would have led us to note other characteristics that our defective orientation made us miss.

EXTENTIONAL ORIENTATION :

 1) To learn how to seek:

- the features which appear similar in different objects,

- the features which appear different in objects classified as similar.

 2) To wonder, in presence of a new experiment which reminds us former experiences, in front of a new object which seems to belong to a group of known objects, if there are important differences.

 3) To index the objects belonging to a same group: the employer 1 different from the employer 2, different from the employer 3.

1. To mind not to confuse the part with the unit and not to judge the whole according to the part :

example: one will not extrapolate the behavior of a person in particular circumstances to put a final judgment on this person.

• to always leave the door openned to different experiments, new informations.
• not to expect systematically such a behaviour from such a person or such an event in such a situation.
• a slackened attitude, a calm and impartial vigilance help to approach any new situation in a correct way and to adapt to it while protecting the nervous system.

 5) To note that certain characteristics exist in addition to those which we retain è use of "etc..."

- in the description of an object, to stress that certain characteristics were left aside,

- in the description of a group of objects: the existing objects are more numerous than those which were held in account.

- each time our statement can pretend to give account of only of part of the facts, of the data.

" etc... " is a recall of the process of abstraction.

6) To use the index indicating the date and the place :

- the object changes, its space-time context changes too.

- the index of dates and places contribute to make us more open-minded to all new, unusual characteristics, not yet tested, which might occur.

- they protect us against the space-time loss of adaptability.

 7) To remember that a same verbal designation can cover, during one rather long period of time, an object which changes however during this period è to avoid any superficial identification between this " static " designation and the object gifted with dynamic properties temporally oriented.

8) To use of an unlimited number of values likely to be allotted to an unlimited number of facts, instead of wanting to allot to the latter only one small number of values: when we can assign to each fact the value of its own and which exactly corresponds to him , and not a value chosen in a restricted, insufficient sampling, our orientation is structurally similar to the empirically perceived world.

9) Approaching the experiment and trying to give an account of what one perceives, one must mind, like the man of science, to think and speak in terms of degrees, of nuances, rather than in terms of contrasts (truth-false, good-bad, etc...)

the purpose of 2 notations is to announce the non-elementalist attitude:

a) To put between quotation marks designations such as " space ", " time ", " body ", etc...:

• they are not isolated realities,
• they are not elements that one can separate from the unit formed by the set of the relations,
• the designation which isolates them artificially covers only one fiction
• if elementalists terms are employed, never draw a conclusion from them, because it would contain the structure of the metaphysics which surrounds the term.
• use them if necessary, but draw the conclusions from the fact-process, so that they have some value.

  b) To use the hyphens to indicate that the factors sometimes artificially separated are in fact in close relation between them to represent new structural implications. Example: space-time, psycho-somatic.

 WE HAVE TO APPROACH GLOBAL SITUATIONS AND WE DO IT WITH OUR WHOLE INDIVIDUAL.

Go to chapter X