We see what we see because we miss all the finer details.
- Alfred Korzybski

3 Questions: "What?"........."So what?"........."Now what?"
- Coro wisdom

"The world we have created today as a result of our thinking thus far has problems which cannot be solved by thinking the way we thought when we created them."
- Albert Einstein

"The aim of education is the condition of suspended judgment on everything."
- George Santayana

"If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. The free mind is no barking dog to be tethered on a 10-foot chain."
- Adlai Stevenson

"Teaching and learning that lead to no significant change in behavior are practically worthless."
– Irving Lee

"Learning to un-learn to learn, for me, best describes the process of learning the discipline theoretically (verbally) and organismically."
– M. Kendig

"Learning is the gradual replacement of fantasy with fact."
- Gifford Pinchot

"The trouble with people is not so much with their ignorance as it is with their knowing so many things that are not so."
- William Alanson White

"You can't no more teach what you ain't learned than you can come from where you ain't been."
- Mark Twain

"A person does what he does because he sees the world as he sees it."
- Alfred Korzybski

"You can't step into the same river twice."
- Heraclitus

"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions."
- Leonardo da Vinci

"Happiness is not something that happens….It does not depend on outside events, but, rather, on how we interpret them."
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

"We are always getting to live, but never living."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"How we feel about ourselves, the joy we get from living, ultimately depend directly on how the mind filters and interprets everyday experiences."
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

"God may forgive your sins. But your nervous system won't."
- Alfred Korzybski

"The self explorer, whether he wants to or not, becomes an explorer of everything else."
- Elias Canetti

"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
- Albert Einstein

"Nothing so needs reforming as other people's habits."
- Mark Twain

"Time is but the stream I go fishing in."
- Henry David Thoreau

"It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and only lukewarm defenders among those who may do well under the new."
- Machiavelli

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
- George Bernard Shaw

"To progress, man must re-make himself, and he cannot re-make himself without suffering. For he is both the marble and the sculptor."
- Alexis Carrel

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."
- Elvis Costello

Institute of General Semantics

›

 
PDF Print

General Semantics

Improve Your Day-to-Day Activities, Interactions, and Relationships

General Semantics ... it's not what you think. It's how you think ... how you feel ... what you see ... what you hear ... it's what you do.
For an overview of General Semantics in French, click here.
For an overview of General Semantics in Spanish, click here.

 

General Semantics (or GS) can be referred to as a general system of evaluation and awareness. It provides a systematic methodology to understand how you relate to the world around you, how you react to this world, how you react to your reactions, and how you may adjust your behavior accordingly.

As language provides the means and the environment by which this evaluative process occurs, much of general semantics deals with studying the effects of language (and other symbol systems) on our behavior, and vice-versa.

General Semantics deals with the study of how we perceive, construct, evaluate, and communicate our life experiences. It can be considered an interdisciplinary study in that when you study general semantics, you integrate knowledge from many academic fields - not just language and communication studies, but also psychology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, physiology, sociology, anthropology, etc.

...experience shows that when the methods of general semantics are applied, the results are usually beneficial, whether in law, medicine, business, etc., be they in family, national, or international fields. If they are not applied, but merely talked about, no results can be expected.

- Alfred Korzybski

As a system, GS utilizes the principles and methods of modern science and applies them to most areas of human activity. It provides the means to improve your day-to-day activities, interactions, and relationships.

General Semantics was introduced in the book Science and Sanity by Alfred Korzybski. Originally printed in 1933, it is now in its fifth edition and has inspired many popularizations, over one hundred and fifty doctoral dissertations and two journals. It serves as the basis for educational courses in schools and universities, as well as seminars and training programs offered by the Institute.

Learn more through the free online resources provided on this site, as well as the books and media offered for sale in our online store.
 

Support IGS

IGS would like to thank you for your continued support. We are a not-for-profit organization and your donations keep us operating.

If you would like to make a donation to IGS, please use the button below and you will be directed to our Safe & Secure website where you may pay by credit card or PayPal.

Thank you!

Join Our Forum

Find out more about IGS and connect with fellow general semantics enthusiasts.

Contact Us

Institute of General Semantics
2260 College Avenue
Fort Worth, TX 76110
Tel: (817) 922-9950
Fax: (817) 922-9903

IGS Webmaster

Can't find something on the IGS website? Find a broken link? Send an email to the IGS webmaster.
The Institute of General Semantics is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational corporation deriving its funding from membership donations, seminar and lecture tuitions, and private gifts. Donations are tax deductible as the law allows.
Joomla 1.5 Templates by Joomlashack