General Semantics

What is General Semantics?

From Wikipedia (2025)

General semantics is concerned with how phenomena (observable events) translate to perceptions, how they are further modified by the names and labels we apply to them, and how we might gain a measure of control over our own cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses. Proponents characterize general semantics as an antidote to certain kinds of delusional thought patterns in which incomplete and possibly warped mental constructs are projected onto the world and treated as reality itself. Accurate map-territory relations are a central theme.

It is a subject taught in many universities, and there is a lot that has been written about it. My 10000-foot view summary is that it's a way of thinking about thinking, and specifically thinking about the different levels of abstraction that you apply to physical and mental phenomenon as a human during your process of observing or understanding something.

It was originated by Alfred Korzybski, a Polish engineer and polymath, in 1933 when he published the seminal work, Science and Sanity. If you ever end upinterested enough to want to take a peek at the book then I recommend searching for pdfs of it on Google, or reach out to ingrix@sdf.org. The many General Semantics societies around the world often have pdf copies of it available, and if you send an email to ingrix@sdf.org and I'll help you find it.