Alfred Korzybski

…the analogy between the noises we make when these noises do not symbolize anything which exists, and the worthless checks read more

…the analogy between the noises we make when these noises do not symbolize anything which exists, and the worthless checks we write when our bank balance is zero…

In the rough, a symbol is a sign that stands for something… Before a noise, etc., may become a symbol, read more

In the rough, a symbol is a sign that stands for something… Before a noise, etc., may become a symbol, something must exist for the symbol to symbolize.

We should not be surprised that we find meaningless noises in the foundation of many old ‘philosophies’, and that from read more

We should not be surprised that we find meaningless noises in the foundation of many old ‘philosophies’, and that from them arise most of the old ‘philosophical’ fights and arguments.

…a few philosophers really do important work. This applies to the so called ‘critical philosophy’ and to the theory of read more

…a few philosophers really do important work. This applies to the so called ‘critical philosophy’ and to the theory of knowledge or epistemology. This class of workers I call epistemologists to avoid the disagreeable implications of the term ‘philosopher’.

If we consider that all we deal with represents constantly changing sub-microscopic, interrelated processes which are not, and cannot be read more

If we consider that all we deal with represents constantly changing sub-microscopic, interrelated processes which are not, and cannot be ‘identical with themselves’, the old dictum that ‘everything is identical with itself’ becomes in [today’s understanding of the universe] a principle invariably false to facts.