Quote

The present non-aristotelian system is based on fundamental negative premises namely, the complete denial of 'identity.'

Alfred Korzybski

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Alfred Korzybski
Age: 70 †
Born: 1879
Born: July 3
Died: 1950
Died: March 1
Engineer
Linguist
Mathematician
Philosopher
Warszawa
Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski
Identity
Aristotelian
Negative
Namely
Based
Premises
Present
Therapy
System
Denial
Fundamental
Fundamentals
Complete

More quotes by Alfred Korzybski

Image
Whatever you say it is, is simply what YOU SAY it is.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
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.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
Let us repeat the two crucial negative premises as established firmly by all human experience: (1) Words are not the things we are speaking about and (2) There is no such thing as an object in absolute isolation.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
If a psychiatric and scientific inquiry were to be made upon our rulers, mankind would be appalled at the disclosures.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
Whatever you may say something is, it is not!
Alfred Korzybski
Image
What we call progress consists in coordinating ideas with realities.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
It is now no mystery that some quite influential 'philosophers' were 'mentally' ill.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
God may forgive your sins, but your nervous system won't.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
Identification makes general sanity and complete adjustment impossible. Training in non-identity plays a therapeutic role with adults.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
Two important characteristics of maps should be noticed. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
Mathematics and logic have been proved to be one a fact from which it seems to follow that mathematics may successfully deal with non-quantitative problems in a much broader sense than was suspected to be possible.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
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.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
Identity is invariably false to facts.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
It is amusing to discover, in the twentieth century, that the quarrels between two lovers, two mathematicians, two nations, two economic systems, usually assumed insoluble in a finite period should exhibit one mechanism, the semantic mechanism of identification - the discovery of which makes universal agreement possible, in mathematics and in life.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
Riches I need not, nor man's empty praise.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
To use words to sense reality is like going with a lamp to search for darkness.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
The map is not the territory.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
We see what we see because we miss all the finer details.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
The map is not the territory... The only usefulness of a map depends on similarity of structure between the empirical world and the map.
Alfred Korzybski
Image
One would have to say in the end everything is a gag, etc because everything is infinitely more than just a gag. The same applies to other is-statements such as Laughter is an instant vacation
Alfred Korzybski