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Article Excerpt
General Semantics: A theory of values and evaluation. A theory of sanity. A theory of psychotherapy. A general theory of time-binding. An extensional discipline comprising a set of inter-related principles-generalizations of the methods and approach of science and mathematics as principles-tools for general improvement and progress. Principles we can use as evaluating standards and time-binding tools to help us avoid or minimize the harmful power of language, symbols, images, etc. so that we can use them for general improvement and sanity in our human affairs and in our relationships.
A way to improve ourselves--our thinking, attitudes, relationships, and behavior.
From noun to verbs: When as student-practitioners of general semantics we treat and identify, "time-binding" only as Korzybski's definition and classification of human beings, we miss opportunities to think of time-binding as an activity, a behavior, something we do. When we think of time-binding and other general semantics principles mainly as labels and nouns and not as verbs, we are more likely to talk about, write about, and analyze them to pieces rather than apply them to our life situations and use them as psychological tools we can use for improvements in all areas of our living.
In verbalizing, we are in keeping with a scientific approach in emphasizing operational, functional, and actional language. Keeping in mind that general semantics was formulated as a discipline, I think student-practitioners could discover deeper aspects of the system and benefit tremendously by using a little ingenuity to create their own verbal forms for general semantics principles With a little contemplation, readers might recognize that in terms of change and process, verbs more accurately describe, and more accurately represent a world of activities and happenings. Our nouns and labels "influence" us--often to our disadvantage--to identify, forget, and treat ourselves, others, things, situations, societies, etc., as unchanging.
One way to verbalize the principles: Make sure you understand what the principle is about, then visualize the behavior (operation, activity, etc.) represented by the principle, and finally create a related verb. For example: The principle of non-identity holds that "No two things are the same in all respects--and a 'thing-ing' (in terms of time, process, change) is not even identical with itself." We can visualize this too: "dis-identify"--notice differences between things, situations, etc. that seem the same." The principle of "non-allness" says "We cannot sense, know, understand say, etc., all about anything." Verbalize to: Remember whatever my experience, whatever my plan, action, decision, etc., I have left out many factors. The principle of non-additivity: More and more of a good thing might make matters worse; going faster and faster might not get us there sooner and sooner; more and more light does not make us see better and better but could be blinding. Verbalization: Remembering value shift could be advantageous. (These are my verbalizations. I think you will benefit more by making up your own.) If you find a particular principle difficult to verbalize, link the principle to the activities represented by the verbs "remember," "notice," and "be aware of."
Let us apply this verbalizing to "consciousness of abstracting"--a label for a foundational principle of general semantics. General Semantics emphasizes training ourselves to develop "consciousness of abstracting"--conscious awareness of our abstracting behavior--remembering that in our abstracting we have not included all. Starting with "abstracting": In the discipline of general semantics the term "abstracting" covers all our neurological and psychobiological activities. Neural circuits interacting can be described in terms of activating, regulating, reinforcing, inhibiting, summarizing, integrating, and so on. In our daily interactions we attend to, notice, etc., certain things and we leave out, ignore, reject, and forget others. "Abstracting" (attending to, leaving out, etc.,) labels something we do at psychological levels without necessarily being consciously aware that we do this.
We do not usually treat, or think however, of "consciousness" or "awareness" as verbs--representing behaviors--something we do. But we can be conscious of, we can "catch" ourselves, we can notice, attend to, ignore, etc., what we are thinking, saying, feeling, doing, noticing, not noticing, and so on. If you say to me "be conscious...
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