OVERVIEWS
General semantics represents something of a paradox. On the one hand, many of its core formulations - delay your reactions, "the map is not the territory," the dangers of "either/or" thinking, and many others - seem obvious, simple, and taken for granted.
However, taken as a system of evaluation as-a-whole, the theoretical basis and implications of general semantics have provided more than enough fuel to ignite and sustain obtuse, sometimes opaque, ivory tower philosophical pontifications for almost 70 years.
Somewhere in between these extremes of trivially obvious and obtusely opaque, there exists a need for knowledgeable, scholarly and accessible explications of the discipline. The excerpts offered here as Overviews satisfy that need, with each reflecting specific interests and points of view unique to the individual authors.
You may notice that some of these selections were written well before you were born. Are they therefore dated, or out-of-date? I think not. You can judge for yourself - if you find the material 'dated', you can express gratitude that you and others of your generation have indeed progressed beyond the constraints of decades ago; if not, if you find the material still relevant, then perhaps like me you'll experience a sense of humility at how difficult it is to actually practice in real life what we 'know' from our books and lessons.
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OVERVIEWS
Wendell Johnson, Ph.D.
U. of Iowa
Dr. Russell Meyers
Neurosurgeon, U. of Iowa
Ray Bontrager, Ph.D.
California St. College (PA)
Francis P. Chisholm
State Teachers College, WI
Alfred Korzybski
author, Scence and Sanity
Irving J. Lee, Ph.D.
Northwestern U.
J. Samuel Bois
author, Art of Awareness
George Doris
Korzybski and GS
All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions.
Leonardo da Vinci
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