General semantics is a
school of thought that incorporates
philosophic and
scientific aspects. Although it does not stand on its own as a separate
school of philosophy, a separate
science, or an
academic discipline, it describes itself as a scientifically
empirical approach to
cognition and
problem solving. It has been described by nonproponents as a
self-help system, and it has been criticized as having
pseudoscientific aspects, but it has also been favorably viewed by various scientists as a useful set of
analytical tools albeit not its own science.
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.
After partial launches under the names
human engineering and
humanology,<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-1"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></a> Polish-American originator
Alfred Korzybski<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-kodish1-2"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></a> (1879–1950) fully launched the program as
general semantics in 1933 with the publication of
Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics.
In
Science and Sanity, general semantics is presented as both a theoretical and a practical system whose adoption can reliably alter human behavior in the direction of greater sanity. In the 1947 preface to the third edition of
Science and Sanity, Korzybski wrote: "We
need not blind ourselves with the old dogma that 'human nature cannot be changed', for we find that it
can be changed."<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-korzybski1-3"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></a> While Korzybski considered his program to be empirically based and to strictly follow the scientific method, general semantics has been described as veering into the domain of
pseudoscience.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-Gardner-4"><span>[</span>4<span>]</span></a>
Starting around 1940, university English professor
S. I. Hayakawa (1906–1992), speech professor
Wendell Johnson, speech professor Irving J. Lee, and others assembled elements of general semantics into a package suitable for incorporation into mainstream communications curricula. The
Institute of General Semantics, which Korzybski and co-workers founded in 1938,<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-5"><span>[</span>5<span>]</span></a> continues today. General semantics as a movement has waned considerably since the 1950s, although many of its ideas live on in other movements, such as
media literacy,<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-6"><span>[</span>6<span>]</span></a>
neuro-linguistic programming<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-7"><span>[</span>7<span>]</span></a><a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-8"><span>[</span>8<span>]</span></a> and
rational emotive behavior therapy.<a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_semantics#cite_note-9"><span>[</span>9<span>]</span></a>
en.wikipedia.org
