Friday, November 25, 2011

The General Evaluational Value of Mathematics and the Exact Sciences

"Now those who are professionally engaged in human affairs, economists, sociologists, politicians, bankers, priests of every kind, teachers . , [etc.,] 'mental' hygiene workers, and psychiatrists included, do not even suspect that material and methods of great general semantic [evaluational] value can be found in mathematics and the exact sciences. The drawing of their attention to this fact, no matter how clumsily done at first, will stimulate further researches, produce better formulations and understanding, and ultimately create conditions where sanity will be possible." —Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity, p. 538

1 comment:

Bruce Kodish said...

On Facebook/korzybski.biography, Malke Rosenfeld asked: "Can you provide a brief explanation of 'general evaluational value'?"

I replied: general - 'widely applicable';

evaluational - synonym of what Korzybski intended by 'semantic', i.e., organismal 'thinking'-'feeling';

value - importance, significance