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Quote by Alfred Korzybski

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Alfred Korzybski
Alfred Korzybski

Alfred Korzybski, born on July 3, 1879 in Poland and died on March 1, 1950 in the United States, was a renowned philosopher, writer, and scientist. He is best known for his research on language, thought, and cognition, which had a profound impact on the fields of cognitive science and linguistics. Korzybski's most famous contribution is the 'Korzybski Hypothesis,' which states that human thought is limited by language and symbols. This theory has had a significant influence on the development of cognitive science and linguistics. more

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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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“The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”

KnowsBelieveFactsShowsRealityFaithBeliefProcessCapableChecksSooner Or LaterBattlefieldsBumpsUntrue
Author:George Orwell
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“Belief Systems contradict both science and ordinary "common sense." B.S. contradicts science, because it claims certitude and science can never achieve certitude: it can only say, "This model"- or theory, or interpretation of the data- "fits more of the facts known at this date than any rival model." We can never know if the model will fit the facts that might come to light in the next millennium or even in the next week.”

IfsKnowsFactsLightMightFaithNextBeliefCommonKnownWeekAchieveTheoryFitModelsOrdinaryClaimsCommon SenseDataInterpretationRivalsBelief SystemsMillenniumNext WeekCertitude
Book:Tsog: The Thing That Ate the Constitution
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“Death makes me realize how deeply I have internalized the agnosticism I preach in all my books. I consider dogmatic belief and dogmatic denial very childish forms of conceit in a world of infinitely whirling complexity. None of us can see enough from one corner of space-time to know "all" about the rest of space-time.”

KnowsWorldBookEnoughFormFaithBeliefRealizingSpaceCornersDenialComplexityConceitAgnosticismDogmaticSpace Time
Book:Tsog: The Thing That Ate the Constitution
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“The Principle of Tolerance, fixed once for all the realization that all knowledge is limited. It is an irony of history that at the very time when this was being worked out, there should rise, under Hitler in Germany and other tyrants elsewhere, a counter-conception: a principle of monstrous certainty. When the future looks back on the 1930's, it will think of them as a crucial confrontation of culture as I have been expounding it - the ascent of man against the throwback to the despots' belief that they have absolute certainty.”

ThinkingMenShouldLooksHas BeensFaithCultureBeliefPrinciplesAbsolutesCertaintyUncertaintyIronyFixedGermanyConceptionCrucialTyrantsElsewhereConfrontationMonstrous1930sRealisationAscentDespotsAbsolute CertaintyThrowback
Author:Jacob Bronowski
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“'Believing' cannot tip the scales in making a historical judgement about whether something really happened. I can choose to believe that George Washington threw a silver dollar across the Rappahannock, but my believing that he did it has nothing to do with whether or not he really did do it. So also with the story of Jesus walking on water: Believing that he did it has nothing to do with whether he really did do it. 'Belief' cannot be the basis for historical conclusions; it has no direct relevance.”

BelieveI CanStoriesFaithJesusBeliefWaterHappenedWalkingDirectBasesDollarsHistoricalScalesConclusionJudgementSilverRelevanceWalking On Water
Author:Marcus Borg
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