Alfred Korzybski
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Robot - Moving category Polish-Americans to Americans of Polish descent per [[WP:CFD|CFD]] at [[Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2008 June 29]].
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{{Infobox Person
|name = Alfred Korzybski
|image = Alfred Korzybski.jpg
|birth_date = {{birth date|1879|7|3|mf=y}}
|birth_place = [[Warsaw]], [[Congress Poland]]
|death_date = {{death date and age|1950|3|1|1879|7|3|mf=y}}
|death_place = [[Lakeville, Connecticut]], [[United States|USA]]
|occupation = [[Engineer]], [[philosopher]], [[mathematician]]
|spouse =
}}
'''Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski''' ({{pronEng|kɔ'ʐɨpski}}) ([[July 3]], [[1879]] – [[March 1]], [[1950]]), was called, among many labels, a ''[[Polish-American]]'', ''[[philosopher]]'' and ''[[scientist]]''. He is most remembered for developing the theory of [[general semantics]].
==Early life and career==
[[Image:Herb Abdank.svg|thumb|left|100px|Alfred Korzybski's family coat-of-arms (''[[Abdank coat of arms|Habdank]])''.]]
He was born in [[Warsaw]], [[Congress Poland]]. He came from an [[aristocratic]] family whose members had worked as [[Mathematics|mathematicians]], [[Science|scientists]], and [[Engineering|engineers]] for generations. He learned Polish at home and Russian in the schools; and having a French governess and a German governess, he became fluent in four languages as a child. As an adult, he chose to train as an engineer.
Korzybski was educated at the [[Warsaw University of Technology]]. During the [[World War I|First World War]] Korzybski served as an [[Military intelligence|intelligence officer]] in the [[Russia]]n Army. After being wounded in his leg and suffering other injuries, he came to North America in [[1916]] (first to [[Canada]], then the [[United States]]) to coordinate the shipment of artillery to the war front. He also lectured to [[Polish-American]] audiences about the conflict, promoting the sale of war bonds. Following the war, he decided to remain in the United States, becoming a [[Naturalization|naturalized citizen]] in [[1940]]. His first book, <cite>Manhood of Humanity</cite>, was published in [[1921]]. In the book, he proposed and explained in detail a new theory of humankind: mankind as a [[time-binding]] class of life.
==General semantics==
Korzybski's work culminated in the founding of a discipline that he called [[general semantics]] (GS). As Korzybski explicitly said, GS should not be confused with [[semantics]], a different subject. The basic principles of general semantics, which include time-binding, are outlined in <cite>''Science and Sanity''</cite>, published in [[1933]]. In [[1938]] Korzybski founded the [[Institute of General Semantics]] and directed it until his death in [[Lakeville, Connecticut]], [[United States|USA]].
Korzybski's work held a view that human beings are limited in what they know by (1) the structure of their nervous systems, and (2) the [[structure]] of their languages. Human beings cannot experience the world directly, but only through their "abstractions" (nonverbal impressions or "gleanings" derived from the nervous system, and verbal indicators expressed and derived from language). Sometimes our perceptions and our languages actually mislead us as to the "facts" with which we must deal. Our understanding of what is going on sometimes lacks ''similarity of structure'' with what is actually going on. He stressed training in awareness of abstracting, using techniques that he had derived from his study of mathematics and science. He called this awareness, this goal of his system, "consciousness of abstracting." His system included modifying the way we approach the world, e.g., with an attitude of "I don't know; let's see," to better discover or reflect its realities as shown by modern science. One of these techniques involved becoming inwardly and outwardly quiet, an experience that he called, "silence on the objective levels."
==Korzybski and ''to be''==
Many supporters and critics of Korzybski reduced his rather complex system to a simple matter of what he said about the verb 'to be.' His system, however, is based primarily on such terminology as the different 'orders of abstraction,' and formulations such as 'consciousness of abstracting.' It is often said that Korzybski ''opposed'' the use of the verb "to be," an unfortunate exaggeration (see 'Criticisms' below). He thought that ''certain uses'' of the verb "to be," called the "is of identity" and the "is of [[E-prime#The different functions of .27to be.27|predication]]," were faulty in structure, e.g., a statement such as, "Joe is a fool" (said of a person named 'Joe' who has done something that we regard as foolish). In Korzybski's system, one's assessment of Joe belongs to a higher order of abstraction than Joe himself. Korzybski's remedy was to ''deny'' identity; in this example, to be continually aware that 'Joe' is ''not'' what we ''call'' him. We find Joe not in the verbal domain, the world of words, but the nonverbal domain (the two, he said, amount to different orders of abstraction). This was expressed in Korzybski's most famous premise, "[[Map-territory relation|the map is not the territory]]." Note that this premise uses the phrase "is not", a form of "to be"; this and many other examples show that he did not intend to abandon "to be" as such. In fact, he expressly said that there were no structural problems with the verb "to be" when used as an [[E-prime#The different functions of .27to be.27|auxiliary verb]] or when used to state existence or location. It was even 'OK' sometimes to use the faulty forms of the verb 'to be,' as long as one was aware of their structural limitations. This was developed into [[E-prime]] by one of his students 15 years after his death.
==Anecdote about Korzybski==
One day, Korzybski was giving a lecture to a group of students, and he suddenly interrupted the lesson in order to retrieve a packet of biscuits, wrapped in white paper, from his briefcase. He muttered that he just had to eat something, and he asked the students on the seats in the front row, if they would also like a biscuit. A few students took a biscuit. "Nice biscuit, don't you think", said Korzybski, while he took a second one. The students were chewing vigorously. Then he tore the white paper from the biscuits, in order to reveal the original packaging. On it was a big picture of a dog's head and the words "Dog Cookies". The students looked at the package, and were shocked. Two of them wanted to throw up, put their hands in front of their mouths, and ran out of the lecture hall to the toilet. "You see, ladies and gentlemen", Korzybski remarked, "I have just demonstrated that people don't just eat food, but also words, and that the taste of the former is often outdone by the taste of the latter." Apparently his prank aimed to illustrate how some human suffering originates from the confusion or conflation of linguistic representations of reality and reality itself. (Source: R. Diekstra, ''Haarlemmer Dagblad'', 1993, cited by L. Derks & J. Hollander, ''Essenties van NLP'' (Utrecht: Servire, 1996), p. 58).
== Criticisms ==
See the [[General Semantics#Criticism|criticism section]] of the main General Semantics article.
==Impact==
Korzybski's work influenced [[Gestalt Therapy]]{{Fact|date=October 2007}}, [[Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy]]<ref>http://time-binding.org/misc/akml/akmls/58-ellis.pdf</ref>, and [[Neuro-linguistic programming]]<ref>Bandler, Richard & John Grinder (1975). The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy. Palo Alto, CA: Science & Behavior Books. </ref> (especially the [[Meta model (NLP)|Meta model]] and ideas behind human modeling). As reported in the Third Edition of ''Science and Sanity'', The U.S. Army in World War II used his system to treat battle fatigue in Europe under the supervision of Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, who also became the psychiatrist in charge of the Nazi prisoners at Nuremberg. Other individuals influenced by Korzybski include [[Kenneth Burke]], [[William S. Burroughs]], [[Frank Herbert]], [[Albert Ellis]], [[Gregory Bateson]], [[Buckminster Fuller]], [[Douglas Engelbart]], [[Stuart Chase]], [[Alvin Toffler]], [[Robert A. Heinlein]], [[L. Ron Hubbard]], [[A. E. van Vogt]], [[Robert Anton Wilson]], entertainer [[Steve Allen (comedian)|Steve Allen]], and Tommy Hall (lyricist for the [[13th Floor Elevators]]); and scientists such as [[William Alanson White]] (psychiatry), physicist [[Percy Williams Bridgman|P. W. Bridgman]], and researcher W. Horsley Gantt (a former student and colleague of [[Ivan Petrovich Pavlov|Pavlov]]). He also influenced the Belgian [[surrealist]] writer of comics [[Jan Bucquoy]] in the seventh part of the comics series ''Jaunes'': ''Labyrinthe'', with explicit reference in the plot to Korzybski's "[[Map-territory relation|the map is not the territory]]."
In part the General Semantics tradition was upheld by [[Samuel I. Hayakawa]], who did have a falling out with Korzybski. When asked over what, Hayakawa is said to have replied: "Words".
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==See also==
* [[General Semantics]]
* [[Map-territory relation|The map is not the territory]]
* [[Structural differential]]
* [[E-Prime]]
* [[Institute of General Semantics]]
* [[Robert Pula]]
* [[Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture]]
* [http://esgs.free.fr/uk/art/sands.htm Science and Sanity] Complete work online.
==External links==
*[http://www.generalsemantics.org Institute of General Semantics]
*[http://www.gestalt.org/alfred.htm Alfred Korzybski and Gestalt Therapy Website]
==External links==
<references />
==Further reading==
*<cite>Manhood of Humanity</cite>, Alfred Korzybski, forward by Edward Kasner, notes by [[M. Kendig]], Institute of General Semantics, 1950, hardcover, 2nd edition, 391 pages, ISBN 0-937298-00-X. ([http://www.archive.org/details/manhoodofhumanit00korziala Copy of the first edition])
*<cite>Science and Sanity An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics</cite>, Alfred Korzybski, Preface by [[Robert P. Pula]], Institute of General Semantics, 1994, hardcover, 5th edition, ISBN 0-937298-01-8, ([http://esgs.free.fr/uk/art/sands.htm full text online])
* ''Alfred Korzybski: Collected Writings 1920-1950'', Institute of General Semantics, 1990, hardcover, ISBN 0-685-40616-4
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[[Category:1879 births]]
[[Category:1950 deaths]]
[[Category:General semantics]]
[[Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States]]
[[Category:Neuro-Linguistic Programming predecessors]]
[[Category:Americans of Polish descent]]
[[Category:Polish engineers]]
[[Category:Polish philosophers]]
[[Category:Polish mathematicians]]
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