Thursday, July 31, 2014

Alan Watts on 'General Semantics'

The Realist: "How would you evaluate the relationship between Zen and General Semantics?"
Alan Watts: "Well, there's a very close tie in principle between Zen and General Semantics, but there is a great difference in practice. Most semantics people I know talk too much and get increasingly involved in increasingly fine distinctions, as if language could be made n-dimensional. But I do think many of the writers—Korzybski, Bois, Hayakawa—have said things to wake people up.  
"I'm all for General Semantics as long as they call a halt to the discussion at about eleven o'clock." 

Paul Krassner's Impolite Interviews (1999), p. 3
New York: Seven Stories Press 

You can read the original 1959 interview here:
http://www.ep.tc/realist/14/index.html

1 comment:

Mindvalley said...

Thanks for providing such useful information. Hope to get some more information in future also.

Alan Watts