General Semantics Bulletin: Official Annual Journal of the Institute of General Semantics

by Harry L. Weinberg

Book by Weinberg, Harry L. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0910780005
• ISBN13: 9780910780001
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Institute of General Semantics
• Weight: 0.91 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Weinberg's Gestalt

Harry L. Weinberg provides invaluable contextual insights into understanding Alfred Korzybski's (1933) "Science And Sanity", discussing epistemological, ethical, aesthetic, etc., problems. Weinberg connects Korzybski's (1933) non-elementalism (non-additive, structure-as-a-whole) to Gestalt emergence ("Whole is more than sum of parts"): 'additively', C contains only the characteristics present in 'A or B'; whereas non-additively, C emerges as a new structure, having unique characteristics. As Weinberg asserts our mis-formulations result from an 'aristotelian' (Aristotle c. 350 B.C.) language structure ('logic'). 'Projecting' our values ("We create the world as we perceive it"): thing-ness having 'properties', false-to-facts dichotomous doctrines (relativist-absolutist, freewill-determinism, pleasure-plain, etc), etc.; upon which we further impose our moral judgements. However instead of 'faithfully', following 'inferences', involving Cassius J. Keyser's (1922) "Logical Fate". If conscious of abstracting, revising our inferences involves differing semantic reactions of humans-as-a-whole-in-an-environment(s), resolvable via factual (Science) non-elementalistic contextual degrees. As revealed by Niels Bohr's (1927) Quantum Mechanics Complementary principle. For example color does not 'exist', but an abstracting from wavelengths upon our retina. Similarly 'beauty', like 'emotions', involves gestalts formed by the observer. Finally dispelling 'identity' ('sameness') illusions: "No two events are identical and there can never be any repetition of a given state of affairs because all measurements take place at a given time". Consequently coupled with Werner Heisenberg's (1927) Uncertainty principle, blows strict determinism ('certainty'), leading to non-elementalistic causality. Weinberg asserts the experimental 'conditionality' of animals does not represent the human 'laws of learning', since symbol-using activity, can inevitably change any learned 'responses'. Advocating Wolfgang Kohler's (1925) insight instead of 'associative' learning. Connecting Korzybski's (1933) extensionalizing (factual evaluating) to the non-verbal levels, to Zen Buddhism's Satori (as discussed by Daisetz T. Suzuki), enlightenment attained by insight into the dynamic, non-symbolic, 'reality'. Providing a comparison between Korzybski's (1921)Time-binding with Abraham Maslow's (1954) theory of hierarchical needs.

General Semantics - A Practical Application for Awareness

I read, and re-read, the first edition of this book in the mid 80's, and it shaped my thinking from that time forward. It led me to many insights that I have used to refine my commercial and public-license "methodology" for managing endeavors at all scales from individual to universal. The key contribution of this book to this methodology is that it helped me to see the many "layers of meaning" or abstractions present in day to day life of organizations, groups, and individuals. These same semantic abstraction layers are now found modeled by organizations such as the Object Management Group (OMG) in the form they describe as the four (4) layer metamodel of a "Model Driven Architecture" (MDA), which are really implementations of a generalized fifth level "object" model (an object metaschema) developed jointly by the OpenGroup and OMG. My methodology leverages these five layers of model abstraction, and more, to create a method/mechanism/notation for universal/general management of any endeavor. This semantics-based methodology's detailed procedures - for collecting, organizing, presenting, and maintaining the varieties of functional management ontologies within my larger and integrative general enterprise management (GEM) ontology - can be used for integrated: enterprise management (EM), enterprise architecture (EA), business process reengineering (BPR), system/software requirement specification (SRS), logical system design (e.g., per ANSI/EIA 632 System Engineering Process, IEEE/EIA 12207.x Software Life Cycle Management, or IEEE/EIA 1471-2000 Software Intensive Systems Documentation), physical system development, and system operations/maintenance.

a great intro to general semantics

How does one review and "objectively" critique-with language-a book about the nature and the limitations of language? If you've ever heard the phrase, "the map is not the territory" you will understand and appreciate and possibly even "feel" its deeper meaning by the time you have finished reading this book. True, as another reviewer stated, _Levels_ is not a primer of General Semantics but it is a fluid, easy to read introduction to Count Korzybski's incredible exploration into the nature of language and its impact on human perception at so many levels. Count Korzybski was a mathematician who understood that physicists use mathematics to describe physical events and phenomena. Therefore, there was a one to one correspondence between numbers and reality. This was not the case between language and reality. In addition to describing actual events, language can be used to generate lies, fictions, illusions, ideas. General Semantics explore this phenomenon and its impact on human perception and behaviors. Professor Weinberg is by far the most lucid of Korzybski's "students". After finishing _Levels_ I became so interested in GS that I got my hands on Korzbyski's _Science and Sanity_ a much tougher read. But much easier to follow after reading Weinberg. Essentially, as humans we experience events, objects, actions, and the universe. But we share our experiences and communicate them with language. Language is a man-made tool. As such it is as flawed as its creators. For example on any given day I can go outside, walk to the park. There I will see and hear a boy throwing a stick to his dog. The dog retrieves the stick and returns it to the boy. I can attempt to describe this experience with more and more infinite detail but I will never be able to convey my exact experience to anyone. What sensations raced through my mind moment by moment as I witnessed these events? What colors did I see, what smells did my nose alert to, what weather conditions did my skin feel, what sounds traveled through my ears into my brain, what memories did these experiences elicit, how did these memories color my experience at the moment? What words did I select to describe my experience and why? Do static words ever suffice to describe fluid experiences satisfactorily? This is Proustian stuff but dissected brilliantly by Weinberg. And this occurs in the opening chapters! Now consider. I just gave you words, a "map", about a boy and a dog, not "the" experience, the territory, the actuality. Did the "experience" as described actually happen? I wrote a map, but is the "territory" a mere fiction? Consider this thesis: Our social and personal mental conditioning, including neurosis and possibly psychosis (?)-some "mental illnesses" at any rate- may be the results of our inability to distinguish words from actual events, to a confusion of "the map with the territory." Consider: We make inferences, speculations and generalizations-"maps"-based on past experiences. These pas

One of the finest books on Korzybski's general semantics.

This book has a lucid, plain style that explains general semantics well. Adherents of general semantics seek "consciousness of abstracting," an awareness derived from science of human limitations. Chapter headings include: Introduction, Some Basic Concepts, Some Limitations of Language, The Abstracting Process, Some Consequences of Process Thinking, Consciousness Of Abstracting, The Value Of Values, Semantitherapy, Religion, and Structure And Function In Cybernetics And General Semantics. The author says that the book is not intended as a general semantics primer, but I recommend it highly for the beginner, as well as for the more advanced student