Talk:General Semantics
From Academic Kids
The article says: "One of the few other prescriptions that can be found in the book is to end every sentence with two periods, the extra one to remind one that things were left out." Now, I may have forgotten large chunks of the book, but I know it didn't end every sentence with two periods. What did the author actually say about this? I seem to recall he wrote a comma and period at the end of lists, as a way of writing "etc.", like so: ",." I suspect he recommended thinking "etc." whenever one sees a period. But if he literally wanted people to use double periods constantly, seems like he would have led by example, as he did with other abbreviations and neologisms.
- I see someone has changed this, but I still don't see a page number. Nor a direct quote. 172.131.184.81 17:08, 14 May 2005 (UTC)
JDF: On page 16, Korzybski listed the punctuation that he would use throughout the book for abbreviating et cetera, e.g., he would write ".," for "etc.,"; he would write ",." for ",etc."; and so on. He never recommended ending every sentence with et cetera, abbreviated or not. He simply indicated that every sentence could theoretically have an 'et cetera' at the end because there is always more that can be said about anything.
The role of magic in popular culture
The article says: "One novel idea from General Semantics concerns the role of magic in popular culture, especially notable in the use of such incantations as political and advertising slogans."
What exactly is "the role of magic in popular culture" supposed to mean here? Can somebody who understands this please clarify?
- That struck me as a little odd, too, and a little like something Theodor Adorno might say, though as far as I know he didn't have much if anything to do with general semantics. Certainly without explanation it probably shouldn't be in the article, which suggests to me that maybe I should take it out until someone wants to expand it. -Seth Mahoney 18:07, Jun 30, 2004 (UTC)
Moved from main page by Seth Mahoney until expanded to clear up just what exactly is meant:
- One novel idea from General Semantics concerns the role of magic in popular culture, especially notable in the use of such incantations as political and advertising slogans.
JDF: There is no "idea from general semantics" concerning "the role of magic in popular culture." Korzybski simply said that a scientific study of magic with its "methods of psycho-logical deception" is "most revealing, as it shows the mechanisms by which we are continually and unknowingly being deceived in science and daily life." He said,"These general, and so common, psycho-logical mechanisms [resulting in deceptions, especially self-deceptions] are very deep, and to a large extent are connected with the aristotelian type of intensional, subject-predicate orientations, which ultimately may become harmful."
