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Alfred Korzybski

Alfred Korzybski Quotes

Philosopher

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Famous Alfred Korzybski Quotes

“If all people learned to think in the non Aristotelian manner of quantum mechanics, the world would change so radically that most of what we call "stupidity" and even a great deal of what we consider "insanity" might disappear, and the "intractable" problems of war, poverty and injustice would suddenly seem a great deal closer to solution.”

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Author:Alfred Korzybski
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“Every language having a structure, by the very nature of language, reflects in its own structure that of the world as assumed by those who evolved the language. In other words, we read unconsciously into the world the structure of the language we use.”

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Book:Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
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“If words are not things, or maps are not the actual territory, then, obviously, the only possible link between the objective world and the linguistic world is found in structure, and structure alone.”

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Book:Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
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“These 'philosophers', etc., seem unaware, to give a specific example, that by teaching and preaching 'identity', which is empirically non-existent in this actual world, they are neurologically training future generations in the pathological identifications found in the 'mentally' ill or maladjusted.”

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Author:Alfred Korzybski
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“As words are not the things we speak about, and structure is the only link between them, structure becomes the only content of knowledge. If we gamble on verbal structures that have no observable empirical structures, such gambling can never give us any structural information about the world. Therefore such verbal structures are structurally obsolete, and if we believe in them, they induce delusions or other semantic disturbances.”

IfsWorldGivingBelieveFaithBeliefSpeakInformationStructureDelusionGamblingLinksGambleObsoleteDisturbance
Book:Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
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“If we, who live outside asylums, act as if we lived in a fictitious world- that is to say, if we are consistent with our beliefs- we cannot adjust ourselves to actual conditions, and so fall into many avoidable semantic difficulties. But the so-called normal person practically never abides by his beliefs, and when his beliefs are building for him a fictitious world, he saves his neck by not abiding by them. A so-called "insane" person acts upon his beliefs, and so cannot adjust himself to a world which is quite different from his fancy.”

IfsWorldPersonsDifferentFaithFallBeliefConditionsBuildingNormalDifficultyInsaneFancyNecksConsistentAbidingAsylumsInsane Person
Book:Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
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