Notes towards a g.s. glossary 1. Richard Plourde's suggestions 2. Joachim Steingrubner's suggestions 3. Time-binding, Richard Plourde 4. Steve Stockdale's notes toward a glossary 5. Semantic reaction, Dan'l DanehyOakes ============================================================================== >From: "Richard Plourde" >Date: Fri, 6 Oct 1995 00:19:48 -0500 I will be collecting and archiving postings on the gs@lumina, ssread-l@newciv that contain the word 'glossary' in the subject line. I'll also collect any postings to me at rplourde@scoot.netis.com that contain 'glossary' in the subject line in that archive. You should assume that anything posted with that subject may reappear in public at some later time, so watch your language. And please do not use that subject line for anything which you wish to maintain as copyright protected (nor for anything that is already under an intended copyright protection). I'm just barely beginning to deal with my brain; I don't want to deal with the U.S. legal 'system.' I strongly recommend the form: 1 Word-to-be-defined (g.s.-jargon-symbol)--example: s.r 2 Short abstract definition of the word 3 Example of appropriate usage 4 Example of a common inappropriate usage 5 Structural relevance to g.s. I suspect that if such a glossary were to be useful, it would not take the form of full-fledged essays. Working from "the map covers not all the territory," let's think of useful glossary entries as covering not *nearly* all the territory. I suggest that the appropriate/ inappropriate examples provide more 'grounding' for the novice than the abstract definition or the structural-relevance section. If this works, then I'd expect a moderate-sized glossary (perhaps available as a FAQ or on a Website) as the product. That glossary would *not* necessarily keep anything anybody writes in recognizable form. If this goes forward, I hope(?) to convince Earl Hautala to assist in the editing process -- but one other long-time g.s.-student/teacher would help balance the process. (Volunteers?) If, by the end of the year, we have fewer than twenty glossary entries, I think that we'll decide, "Nice try, but no cigar" and abandon the project. This is *not* intended as a group-discussion list -- consider anything you send to me as going into a black hole ... maybe. But, damn! When I first *started* this g.s.-study stuff, I sure could have used a glossary to get me going. And since I'm still just starting, I could still sure use the glossary. I'll bet that others could use it, too. If anybody wants to write a glossary entry, but doesn't know which one to write -- ask me by EMail!!! I'll assign a topic. Gratefully. Steve Stockdale has already provided a 'glossary' (mostly not including examples) so I have a reference source for picking out titles. And I'll use it. Oh, and if there are any 'lurkers' out there who find the g.s.-stuff interesting but confusing, and have specific jargon-terms that seem more confusing than others, feel free to send me mail. I'll post messages requesting specific glossary entries, and nobody (but me) has to know who you are. Remember -- "glossary" in the subject line. And think "short -- with examples and negative-examples," not "complete." The example I provided a day or so ago was *much* too long. Thanks, -R ============================================================================== I would like to see the Glossary as a Multimedia Web thing on the page, with pictures, etc. Ultimately even VRML. There is a Web area for the ssread-l purposes already installed, but if it's more convenient to have it someplace else, that's that's fine, of course. Joachim ============================================================================== Glossary ============================================================================== Time-binding * abstract summary: The way we use language and other symbols to transmit and maintain information across time. * examples: When grandfather told of his experiences during the "Great Depression" and how his family survived, the people listening gained a second-hand 'experience' *about* the "Great Depression" -- time-binding. When we read a book written thirty years ago, we're "time binding." When we tell somebody about a book written thirty years ago, that "telling" represents time-binding. * counter-examples: Genetically-programmed behavior, such as the ways our hearts beat or "fight-or-flight" reactions to danger, does not constitute time-binding. Personal experience does *not* constitute time-binding, however when we describe our personal experience to others, at that point we perform time-binding. When an experienced cat teaches a kitten to catch a mouse by 'herding' the mouse to where the kitten can experience what-works and what doesn't work in mouse-catching, information gets passed across time, but since that information is *not* symbolic but rather in the form of a contrived forced-experience, the mouse teaching the kitten does not constitute time-binding. * importance Time-binding represents a major way in which human beings differ from animals. A consciousness of time-binding helps us to avoid anthropomorphic false-inference of the way we operate based on the ways that animals operate. A consciousness of time-binding helps us to differentiate between what we've learned through direct experience from that which we've learned through time-binding. A consciousness of time- binding helps us to apply appropriate tests for veracity when we hear or read or experience. ============================================================================== >From: STKD%mimi@magic.itg.ti.com >Date: Thu, 5 Oct 95 14:00:26 CDT >FROM: Steve Stockdale >SUBJECT: A glossary Within the limits of ASCII formats, following is the majority of the glos- sary of g.s. terms provided as a handout from the Institute's summer semi- nar-workshop. Usually, the term stands alone, followed then by the explana- tion. In some cases there's just one line. GENERAL-SEMANTICS FORMULATIONS RELATED TO HUMAN COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSES, HUMAN EVALUATING, etc. process of abstracting structurally-determined (i.e., pre-attitudinal, selecting/filtering) transducing integrating (pre-conscious) projecting (pre-conscious; potentially conscious) languaging (multi-ordinal; self-reflexive) spiral character of abstracting Attitudes, preferences, etc., through neuro- linguistic mechanisms,*complicate* but do not fundamentally change the proc- ess; all human evaluating derives from and constitutes abstracting. Structural Differential as map (model) of the abstracting process, accumulation of and transmission of knowledge (information), etc. semantic reaction total, `emotional', `intellectual', i.e., psychological response of a (human) organism-as-a-whole to a stimulus; broader than what is tradition- ally called `meaning' *symbol*: human, delayed, conditional *signal*: animal, immediate, unconditional, animal-human continuum multi-use of terms lexical (`same' term, different definition) contextual (`same' term, different situation) neurological (`same' term, different brain) multiordinality of terms `same' term, different evaluations related to different orders of abstract- ing; `meaning' = f(order of abstracting) orders (levels) of abstracting acts orders (levels) of abstraction results in time T (artificially `fixed' for analysis) which affects further analysis structure order, relations, function as mutually defining terms structure (relationships, pattern, order, arrangement, observe-observed continuum *in time*) as only `content' of knowledge -- breakaway from the search for `essences', `things in themselves', etc. General-semantics as a non- essentialist discipline. Sapir-Whorf-Korzybski Hypothesis "... a language, any language, has at its bottom certain metaphysics, which ascribe, consciously or unconsciously, some structure to the world." (Science and Sanity, p.89) "We do not realize what tremendous power the structure of an habitual language has. It is not an exaggeration to say that it enslaves us through the mechanism of s.r. (semantic reaction) and that the structure which a language exhibits, and imposes upon us unconsciously, is *automatically projected* upon the world around us. This semantic power is indeed so unbelievable that I do not know any one, even among well- trained scientists, who, after admitting some argument as correct, does not the next minute deny or disregard (usually unconsciously) practically every word he had admitted, being carried away again by the structural implica- tions of the old language and his s.r." (Science and Sanity, pp.90-91) intensional orientation over-dependence on definitions, verbalizations, etc. extensional orientation while maintaining linguistic formulational capabilities, priority assigned to non-verbal (`silent') orders of abstracting extensional devices as neurolinguistic prophylactic (see above) general semantics as a meta-communicational (meta-linguistic, meta-system) system g.s. as method of evaluation relatively `neutral'; no *fixed* `content'; an open system; a propositional calculus; modern, open, *applied* epistemology neurolinguistic feedback `feedback' borrowed from Norbert Wiener but anticipated by Korzybski in his formulation of the circular-spiral character of abstracting and neurological emphasis. (See Structural Differential, Science and Sanity,pp.386-411) neuro-semantic environments *as environments* non-Aristotelian *not anti*-Aristotelian, but broader and corrective non-identity of level (orders) of abstraction(ing) necessary for fully (fullest) func- tioning humans science as method (not to be confused with scientific `knowledge' at a date, technology, be- havior of scientific societies, etc.) recommended as *method* for sanity life as an asymmetric relation irreversible process-at-a-date: "you can't (1991) unboil an egg." uncertainty (restricted Heisenbergian and general Korzybskian) accepted as at heart of human evaluating time-binding as characteristic human activity, leading to: -- formation of cultures -- formation of culture-studying cultures -- rejection of space-binding (excessively competitive) ethics language as tool of time-binding language-referent relationships verbal/non-verbal (silent) levels verbal-non-verbal isomorphy (while maintaining awareness of non-identity) logical fate (premise-conclusion relationship) fact/inference distinction (levels of abstraction) multi-valued vs. two-valued (either-or) *orientations* types of questions operational speculative fun pathology-inducing (lack of consciousness of abstracting) I.F.D. disease H = ME + MM Happiness = Minimum Expectations + Maximum Motivation Abstracting: A technical term in general-semantics; a dictionary won't help. A personal process (an activity with recognizable phases), somewhat different for each person; involving: a) Structurally-determined selecting/filtering (sensory and neural abstracting); including transducing (e.g., for the eye, from electromagnetic vibrations at 186,000 m.p.s. to electrochemical at 225 m.p.h. in the large neural fibers.) b) Functional selecting depending on past experiences, moods, needs, interests, etc. c) Integrating -- summarizing, gestalting d) Projecting -- "the tendency of brains to allocate their own expe- rience elsewhere." Robert Pula e) Self-reflexiveness -- including reactions to reactions, etc. f) Talking (symbolizing) to self and others, which involves: *Multiordinality* -- many possible orders of abstraction; *Self-reflexiveness* -- talking about talk, statements about statements, etc. The entire process is potentially self-corrective and produces re- sults that can be communicated. This process makes it clear that Our maps, non-verbal or verbal, *are not* the territory. Our maps cannot represent *all* of the territory. Any map represents a territory-map maker synthesis; this must be taken into account in evaluation the map. Since the map is not the territory, what we seek is a map *similar in structure* to the territory. ============================================================================= semantic reaction (s.r): a "learned" response to a primarily-symbolic "stimulus." Differentiated from a "purely" "physiological" reflex, such as the knee-jerk, in that it is not "hard-wired" into the nervous system. (As knee-jerk appeared to be in 1933 and still appears to be in 1995.) S.r are not "thought"-out responses to stimuli. They tend to be immediate responses to semantic stimuli, based on past experience, past "thinking," past "emotion," etc. Examples of s.r include: horror at the mere "thought" of Nazis; dislike of foods that one "knows" are healthier than foods one likes, to the point whereone will not try a new dish that contains them as ingredients;; racial bigotry; preference for one color over another; psycho-somatic sneezing at the sight of a representation of an object to which one has an extreme allergy; etc. Because they can be based on these things, they may have been "thought"-out in the past. A fundamental purpose of GS-training "is" the replacement of "bad," "inappropriate," "inaccurate," "dysfunctional," etc. s.r with s.r that are more congruent with reality and with the goals one sets for one's self. This requires examination of existing s.r, particularly to determine why one reacts to a given semantic stimulus in the way one does, and "thinking" out more appropriate reactions. =============================================================================