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This theory was first presented in his Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-aristotelian Systems and General Semantics.

What Makes Humans Human?

It became necessary to investigate for the first time potentialities of humans, not blindly depending on static data of statistical records of past human performances, known today to be an unreliable or even fallacious method of approach.

This was the thesis of Korzybski's first book, Manhood of Humanity: The Science and Art of Human Engineering (1921).

He by-passed the mythological dogmas and enquired, "What is the unique characteristic of humans which makes them human?" He observed anew that each human generation has the potential capacity, unlike animals, to start where former generations left off. He analyzed the neurological and socio-cultural processes by which men can create, preserve, and transmit what they have learned individually to future generations. This unique neurological capacity he called time-binding.

Human Engineering.

He then investigated what the builders of social, economic, political, and other insecure human structures do neurologically, and found that they employ languages (i.e., forms of representation) which are not similar in structure to the facts of science and life as known today. Consequently their results are unpredictable and disasters follow.

Though the main facts of history are known, solutions of human problems have been blocked by pre-scientific, mythological, metaphysical dogmas which have prevented and continue to prevent the possibility of tracing fundamental errors.

Origin of General Semantics.

The first step was to revise the primitive outlook that regarded humans as merely biological organisms on the level of animals rather than as more complex psycho-biological organisms which produce their own socio-cultural environments, sciences, civilizations, etc. Even the most 'intelligent' ape never achieved that.

The next step was a methodological integration of what was already known, and the production of general teachable formulations to handle the increasingly numerous and complex factors in human psycho-biological inter-relationships today. To cope with such problems required a consideration of neuro-linguistic and neuro-semantic environments as environment.

The word semantics was introduced into linguistic literature by Michel Bréal, translated from the French in 1897. It is derived from the Greek semainein ("to mean, to signify") and Bréal stressed meaning on the verbal level. Lady Welby, a contemporary, introduced a theory of Significs, a more organismal evaluation of Bréal's "meaning."

Korzybski, in 1933, called his theory "general semantics" because it deals with the nervous reactions of the human organism-as-a-whole-in-environments, and is much more general and organismally fundamental than the "meanings" of words as such, or Significs.

It is called "non-aristotelian" because, although it includes the still prevailing aristotelian system as a special case, it is a wider, more general formulation to fit the world and 'human nature' as we know it today rather than as Aristotle knew it c. 350 BC.

The aristotelian assumptions influenced the euclidean system, and both underlie the later newtonian system. The first non-aristotelian system takes into account newly discovered complexities in all fields, and parallels and is interdependent methodologically with the new non-euclidean and non-newtonian developments in mathematics and mathematical physics, which made possible even the release of nuclear energy, as in the atomic bombs.

This revised and broadened general outlook makes necessary profound revisions in educational methods, requires de-departmentalization of education, etc., which could be accomplished only after the exact sciences and general human orientations had been unified through an adequate methodological synthesis. Such unification, since it was based on modern scientific methods (physico-mathematical) and the foundations of mathematics incorporated simple workable, elementary techniques which could be applied in any human endeavor, and even to the education of small children.

Space-Time Disorientation in Psychiatric Disorders.

Physicians familiar with general semantics have often treated such cases successfully, applying these new extensional methods in psycho-therapy to eliminate identification of the past with the present, etc., thus re-orienting the individual in space-time.

Many observations indicate that techniques for general orientation based on physico-mathematical space-time ordering, etc., simplify understanding of the most complex human problems. At the same time they point the way to neuro-preventive educational measures against serious socio-cultural maladjustments and indicate constructive possibilities for a new applied anthropology, and a new human ecology which takes into consideration our neuro-semantic and neuro-linguistic environments as environment.

Space-Time Orientation in Mathematics.

Until 1933 no definition of number had been produced which would explain the nature of number, measurement, etc., and would account for the unique validity and high degree of predictability of results arrived at through mathematical methods. The old definition of number in terms of "class of classes" gave results eventuallv in terms of "class of classes," which explained nothing. The new definition of number as unique specific asymmetrical relations produced solutions in terms of those relations, giving structure. Since structure is known to be the only content of human knowledge, and since the non-aristotelian science of mathematics deals only with relation and so structure, the old mystery of "why mathematics and measurement?" is answered; the unique validity of mathematical methods is accounted for, whether applied to mathematics, other sciences, or human problems of living.

1. A map is not the territory.
2. A map does not represent all of a territory.
3. A map is self-reflexive in the sense that an 'ideal' map would include a map of the map, etc., indefinitely.

1. A word is not what it represents.
2. A word does not represent all of the 'facts', etc.
3. Language is self-reflexive in the sense that in language we can speak about language.

Self-Reflexiveness.

Applied by Korzybski to our everyday lives, self-reflexiveness introduced neuro-linguistic factors important for human adjustment and maturity; i.e., the principles of different orders of abstractions, multiordinality, the circularity of human knowledge, second-order reactions, delay of reactions by space-time ordering, thalamo-cortical integration, etc.

Consciousness of Abstracting.

• Indexes to train us in consciousness of differences in similarities, and similarities in differences, such as Smith1, Smith2, etc.
• Chain-indexes to indicate interconnections of happenings in space-time, where a 'cause' may have a multiplicity of 'effects', which in turn become 'causes', introducing also . environmental factors, etc. For instance, Chair1-1 [NOTE, read chair "one" "one"] in a dry attic as different from Chair1-2 in a damp cellar, or a single happening to an individual in childhood which may color his reactions (chain-reactions) for the rest of his life, etc. Chain-indexes also convey the mechanisms of chain-reactions, which operate generally in this world, life, and the immensely complex human socio-cultural environment, included.
• Dates to give a physico-mathematical orientation in a space-time world of processes.
• Et cetera (etc., which can be abbreviated to double punctuation, such as ., or .; or .:) to remind us permanently of the second premise "not all"—to train us in a consciousness of characteristics left out; and to remind us indirectly of the first premise "is not"—to develop flexibility and a greater degree of conditionality in our semantic reactions.
• Quotes to forewarn us that elementalistic or metaphysical terms are not to be trusted and that speculations based on them are misleading. [In this article single quotes are used for this purpose.]
• Hyphens to remind us of the complexities of interrelatedness in this world.

New Structural Implications of the Hyphen.

Oblivious of the structural implications, departmentalized specialists still isolate themselves on either side of the hyphen, as if their specialties were actually separate entities. By eliminating the structural hyphen from such terms as "psycho-biological" (i.e., "psychobiological") and "psycho-somatic" etc., the public is led to believe these issues are simple, while complexities today have increased beyond even professional understanding.

In certain of the sciences solutions have already been found (which led to the methodological problems generalized in the non-aristotelian revision) and indicated often by the hyphen, while in others the painful process of re-examination is still going on.

Physics, for example, has passed from the elementalistic, split, 'absolute space' and 'absolute time' formulations of Aristotle, Euclid, and Newton to the non-elementalistic integrated space-time of Einstein-Minkowski, and tremendous advances have followed. In medical science, however, consideration of psycho-biological and psycho-somatic problems is only just beginning, requiring a complete re-evaluation of existing disciplines.

Only a few examples of the many different areas in which general semantics has already proved useful can be mentioned here.
(1) The foundations of mathematics and so methods of teaching have been revised.
(2) The U.S. Senate Naval Affairs Committee discussed the new methods in connection with: (a) the problem of national scientific research; (b) a scientific evaluation of the merger of the War and Navy departments; and (c) the training of naval officers, wherein Capt. J. A. Saunders (Ret.) urged that all Navy officers should be trained in the new methods.
Applications have also been made in:
(3) presentations and arguments in law courts;
(4) alleviation of combat exhaustion in the European theater of war, applied by Lt. Col. Douglas M. Kelley, M.C., to over 7,000 cases;
(5) diagnoses in psycho-somatic medicine, and as an aid in counseling and psychotherapy, individually or in groups;
(6) treatment of stuttering;
(7) helping reading difficulties;
(8) eliminating stage fright. Etc., etc.

Perhaps most importantly, applications have been made in the methods and contents of education on every level, from the nursery through college and university.

If this partial list seems formidable, it should be remembered that a scientific methodology for optimum usefulness must necessarily be universal in scope.

ALFRED KORZYBSKI