General Semantics Literature

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General Semantics Literature

• A short review by Tom Valcanis

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Branches of GS
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Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity

• The first formulation of General Semantics and
  non-Aristotelian Systems
• 2nd text on time-binding
• The Principia Mathematica of General Semantics
• Introduced almost all still-used principles of GS

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Stuart Chase, The Tyranny of Words

• Stuart Chase was a public intellectual in the
  time of FDR thought to have coined the term
  The New Deal
• Dealt with General Semantics in conjunction with
  linguistics Ogden and Richards et. al.
• Applied GS principles to public discourse and
  political communication

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Samuel I. Hayakawa, Language and Thought in
Action

• Written in 1942 in response to the Nazi
  propaganda machine
• A professor of English, jazz critic and later
  successful U.S. Senator of California (R)
• Updated frequently and once as a textbook for
  communications and media studies esp. journalism
• Modified structural differential as abstraction
  ladder still used today

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Susan and Bruce Kodish, Drive Yourself Sane

• One of the more modern texts on GS
• Husband and wife team with 40 years of
  experience in GS, psychology, personal coaching,
  movement therapy/education, and mind-body
  awareness
• Laid out specifically for beginners and
  specifically for General Semantics unlike two
  previous texts

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First Wave of GS Texts

• Mostly written while Korzybski was still alive
• Expanded upon general formulations and explored
  different areas
• Emerged alongside new technical and scientific
  discoveries in Relativity, Electronics and Cell
  Biology
• Wendell Johnson, People in Quandaries
• Irving J. Lee, Language Habits in Human Affairs
• Anatol Rapoport, Science and the Goals of Man

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Second Wave of GS Texts

• Written after the passing of Korzybski and during
  the time of ETC., The Review of General Semantics
  journal
• Harry Weinberg, Levels of Knowing and Existence
• Samuel Bois, The Art of Awareness
• Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind

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Influence on Psychotherapy

• Directly influenced Albert Ellis Rational
  Emotive Therapy and Fritz Perls Gestalt therapy
• Fritz Perls et. al. Gestalt Therapy Excitement
  and growth in the human personality
• Drs. Albert Ellis and Robert Harper A Rational
  Guide to Living
• Also inspired Milton Erickson, Paul Watzlawick,
  Gregory Bateson, Richard Bandler and John Grinder
  among others

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Contributions to Media Studies

• Started the Media Ecology movement
• Neil Postman was a student and practitioner of
  GS, also editor of ETC.
• Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves To Death,
  Technopoly and GS text Crazy Talk, Stupid
  Talk
• Also used GS principles in education the
  inquiry method
• 2nd wave Dr. Lance Strate, Doug Rushkoff

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GS in Fiction

• GS themes have made their way into fiction
• A. E. van Vogt, The World of Null-A
• Robert Anton Wilson Schrodingers Cat and
  Illuminatus! Trilogy
• Wilson was a great proponent of GS
• Influenced L. Ron Hubbard (but we dont like to
  talk about that)
• Themes shared in Jorge Luis Borges books and
  short stories such as Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius

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How can GS be used?

• A more pertinent question is how cant it be used
  but thats not the point here
• GS as a inquiry based method for
• Critical thinking
• Rational, empirical thinking and evaluation
• Fuzzy logical induction
• Map/territory distinction and relation
• Non-allness
• Consciousness of abstraction

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Thank you for listening! Enjoy your afternoon at
the conference.