ETC.: A Review of General Semantics articles from December 2004

ETC.: A Review of General Semantics archives from December 2004

In this issue.(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... THE ARTICLES for this special issue of ETC were selected by Steve Stockdale, Executive Director of the Institute of General Semantics, from the Institute's library and archives. Steve is well qualified to make these choices: before taking...

Introduction.(Editorial)
December 1, 2004... AS TIME-BINDERS, we inherit the potential to build on the accomplishments of those we follow. Our time-binding legacy comes with many responsibilities, one of which is to recognize and honor our benefactors such that our accomplishments not be...

Tribute to Allen Walker Read.
December 1, 2004... Allen Walker Read was an inspiration to language lovers everywhere--from pop grammarians to heavy-hitting linguists and etymologists. We can look at his long lifetime of work and say--"that was more than O.K." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

Allen Walker Read, American Scholar*.
December 1, 2004... SERENDIPITY, as Horace Walpole explained in 1754, is the happy capacity people have "of making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of." Serendipity was the hallmark of Allen Walker Read's career as a...

In memoriam: Allen Walker Read (1906-2002).(Obituary)
December 1, 2004... OUR SOCIETY [The American Society of Geolinguistics] has been profoundly saddened by the death of Allen Walker Read on October 16, 2002. Dr. Read was considered the foremost living authority on American English. He was a member of our...

The geolinguistics of verbal taboo.
December 1, 2004... THE WORD geolinguistics may not be very familiar to a number of you in this audience and perhaps I should preface my remarks with a few words about this field. The initial exposition is to be found in Professor Mario Pei's book, Invitation to...

Language revision by deletion of absolutisms.
December 1, 2004... MANY PROPOSALS, in a wide variety, have been made for revising the English language in order to increase its efficiency and usefulness. Some would deal with the morphological level (I am, you am, he am, we am, youse am, they am), while others...

A bibliography of Allen Walker Read's articles.
December 1, 2004... in ETC: A Review of General Semantics and the General Semantics Bulletin Available online at: www.time-binding.org/library/awr. From ETC: A Review of General Semantics Vol 13 No 1, 1955: The Term 'Meaning' in Linguistics Vol...

The worlds in which we live.(General Semantics Across the Curriculum)
December 1, 2004... THE CHART entitled "The Worlds in Which We Live" is designed to represent the various areas of our knowledge of the world. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * The central circle covers the field of what we perceive through our 'senses.' This...

"In shorts" from language habits in human affairs.
December 1, 2004... WHAT SHOULD you get from this book? Students who read this book carefully should get: 1. a sense of the problems and difficulties involved in making accurate statements about themselves and the world in which they live; and, 2. a...

The use of general semantics in teaching the language skills in the eighth grade.
December 1, 2004... LIKE MANY English teachers in high schools and junior colleges I have found that the attempt to improve my students' language skills constitutes the heaviest burden of my teaching. The language problem has been given a great deal of attention...

Teaching general semantics to those less likely to succeed: a teaching experience with high school dropouts.
December 1, 2004... "See what I have in my hands?" "Yeah, it's a pair of glasses." "You're wrong. It's the smallest color television set ever made." "And you're a nut. It's a pair of glasses. And you can't change it by calling it a color television...

What we observed in teaching general semantics.
December 1, 2004... THIS QUESTION has been asked: If it were possible to adapt a system of semantic training for children, could it be given at the elementary level? Our answer to this question is based on the results of experiments conducted in Chicago...

Education and the modern world.
December 1, 2004... APUBLIC ADDRESS these days is scarcely respectable unless it announces in ominous tones that we live in a changing world. And the statement is doubly platitudinous because of course we have always lived in a world whose principal characteristic...

Re-education in reading: a report of applications of general semantics in remedial work in reading.
December 1, 2004... I IF SOME MAGICAL TRANSFORMATION could be produced in men's ways of looking at themselves and their fellows, no inconsiderable part of the evils which now afflict society would vanish away or remedy themselves automatically.... As an old...

The use of GS in the motivation of a select group of high school students: summary of a project.
December 1, 2004... Introduction ONE OF THE most challenging problems of education today is that of motivation. Its importance has become so recognized that teachers spend most of their energies finding ways to get students interested and ready for new...

General semantics methodology in college English teaching: report of results in a Freshman English course at Syracuse University.
December 1, 2004... General Context of the Experiment AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY during the academic year 1940-1941, we have based the course in English for freshmen upon introductory training in general semantics. In this report, I will attempt to formulate some...

You can't write writing.
December 1, 2004... THE LATE Clarence Darrow, while speaking one day to a group of professors of English and others of kindred inclination, either raised or dismissed the basic problem with which his listeners were concerned by asking, "Even if you do learn to...

A general semantics course in the school of journalism.
December 1, 2004... ITEACH A one-semester course called General Semantics in Journalism to juniors, seniors, and graduate students in the University of Missouri's School of Journalism. I have varied the subject matter and the emphasis placed upon the different...

Defining terms or describing things?(semantic definition)
December 1, 2004... THE CENTRAL THESIS of this paper was provided by one of the "big five" precursors of general semantics. It was Cassius J. Keyser who said: I can think of no greater improvement in our human discourse than that which would result if...

To be or not to be: E-Prime as a tool for critical thinking.
December 1, 2004... E-Prime! The Fundamentals AMBROSE BIERCE, in his famous Devil's Dictionary, defined logic as "The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding." As we become...

A short explanation of the structural differential.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... THE BROKEN PARABOLA represents the complex submicroscopic, dynamic process level, inferred but not perceived, with an indefinite number of characteristics. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The circle below the parabola represents the object,...

Introduction of Alfred Korzybski at a luncheon in his honor: New York city, January 28, 1948.
December 1, 2004... EVERY ONCE in a while a man comes along who overturns a great towering edifice of accredited wisdom. He is usually not welcomed at the time, especially by those on the top of the edifice, but gradually the world comes to be grateful. New...

On general semantics and physico-mathematical method.
December 1, 2004... The following is a summary of Korzybski's remarks at a luncheon held in his honor at the Yale Faculty Club in February 1949. IFEEL THAT I am honored to be here at Yale and I wish that I might have been an alumnus of Yale if for no other...

On sensory awareness.
December 1, 2004... IN SPEAKING of "sensory awareness" I refer to the work developed, and so named, by Charlotte Selver, which has become so influential particularly during the past few decades. Why is this approach important in training ourselves through general...

Abstractions of visual abstracting.(semantics and art)
December 1, 2004... THE TWO DESIGNS reproduced on the covers of this issue of the General Semantics Bulletin (see page 569) were made by Margaret Nelson, who classifies herself nowadays as housewife and mother, and Lillian Charney, Executive Secretary, Canadian...

General semantics in teaching an introductory course in aesthetics.
December 1, 2004... AT MILLS COLLEGE for the past two years we have been offering a survey of contemporary fine arts for freshman students. This course is an experiment in staff teaching with a co-ordinator carrying the large part of the teaching load. Faculty...

Preliminary notes for a semantics of music.
December 1, 2004... JOHN SMITH, visiting New York for the first time, is walking down noisy Sixth Avenue with his New York friend, Jones. Smith stops, puts his hand on Jones' arm, and asks: "Did you hear that noise?" Jones smiles tolerantly. "What noise do...

How scientific is social science?
December 1, 2004... How scientific is social science? It seems to me that the way to address this question is to determine what we mean by "science" and by "social science" and then to see to what degree each of the several so-called social sciences meets the...

General semantics and the teaching of mathematics.
December 1, 2004... LANGUAGE PROFOUNDLY AFFECTS behavior. Sear the student with "Wrong again, Jones," and you may settle it--Jones quits the course. Challenge him with "Show us your reasoning, Jones," and Jones may find his own mistake--and henceforth check his...

Science, common sense and decency.
December 1, 2004... We must stress that the article of Dr. Langmuir deals with two entirely different worlds, the physico-mathematical world of exact sciences, where the aristotelian principles do not apply fundamentally; and the human world, still ruled by...

On structure and survival.
December 1, 2004... KORZYBSKI WAS principally concerned with man as an organism-as-a-whole and the relationship of the structure of his psycho-logical, time-binding processes to the world in which man lives. In his profound discussion of the structure of these...

Law talk and words consciousness.
December 1, 2004... ONE IS TEMPTED on an occasion like this to be profound. Certainly the previous speakers were, although not exclusively so. Let me right away say one thing that might at least sound profound. That is that law discourse--law talk as I prefer to...

Comments responding to Probert's "law talk and words consciousness".(Walter Probert)
December 1, 2004... ON THE BASIS of Dr. Probert's recent book, Law, Language and Communication, I realized that I was almost certain to agree with what he was likely to say in his talk this afternoon. (1) Now that I have heard him, this is certainly true. He has...

Horticulture as a field for investigation of semantic reactions.
December 1, 2004... IT IS WITH the greatest hesitation that I accept the invitation of my friend Alfred Korzybski to contribute to the program of this Congress at Denver. I recognize that my knowledge of the subject of general semantics is too fragmentary and too...

Some implications of general semantics methodology for social work.
December 1, 2004... THE APPLICATION of the theory of general semantics in the specialized field of Social Work calls for the adoption of a new attitude toward already-existing knowledge in that field rather than for the acceptance of a new and different theory...

General semantics in the practice of a consulting psychologist.
December 1, 2004... IT IS NOT MY FUNCTION, I feel, to repeat general formulations of neuro-semantics. Rather, I would like to answer the queries of a certain number of professional people interested in applying techniques of general semantics. These people usually...

Foreword to "science teaching and the humanities" by Philipp Frank.
December 1, 2004... THE CLOSENESS of Dr. Frank's position, as it appears in the present article, to the point of view of general semantics is too evident to require elaborate comment. Stated in general semantics terminology, Dr. Frank's critique of our education...

Science teaching and the humanities (introduction).
December 1, 2004... [Due to the length of this article, only the introduction to Dr. Frank's article follows. The full paper can be read online at: www.time-binding.org/library/etc/4-4-frank.pdf.] THERE IS A widespread belief that the rising contempt for...

Epistemology and responsibility of the mass media.
December 1, 2004... WORKING JOURNALISTS seldom concern themselves with deeply philosophical questions or with the epistemological assumptions of their own profession. Many operate on the aristotelian assumption that their words reflect (or should reflect)...

Ethics of time-binding.
December 1, 2004... POPULAR ORTHODOXY about 'human nature' for the past hundred years has, by virtue of a naive, elementalistic 'materialism,' defined man as a 'selfish animal,' engaged in a struggle in which the 'fittest' survive. Had society been differently...

Avoiding the dangers of semantic adolescence.
December 1, 2004... RECENTLY I WAS TALKING with a colleague from another college, whose point of view seemed enough like mine to make me hope that he too was sympathetic toward general semantics as a basic educational method. To my disappointment, he was not. He...

After you have studied general semantics.
December 1, 2004... GENERALLY SPEAKING, you will make applications to two large groups of problems or situations: those that are essentially personal, and those that you will call professional or relatively impersonal. A word about each of these should help...