Alfred Korzybski
Polish-American scholar (1879 to 1950) who founded general semantics; author of Science and Sanity (1933), where he wrote that a map is not the territory it represents; founded the Institute of General Semantics in 1938.
Alfred Korzybski did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
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A map is not the territory it represents, but if it is correct it shares the territory's structure, which is what makes it useful.
A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
generalsemantics.orgSaid c. 1933This on korrents
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Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 2 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
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Recent
A map is not the territory it represents, but if it is correct it shares the territory's structure, which is what makes it useful.
A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
The Map Is Not the Territory (Institute of General Semantics, quoting Korzybski, 1933, and Bateson, 1970) Said c. 1933
Languages are at best maps: a word is not the object it represents.
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
The Map Is Not the Territory (Institute of General Semantics, quoting Korzybski, 1933, and Bateson, 1970) Said c. 1933
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