Korzybski: A Biography (Free Online Edition)
Copyright © 2014 (2011) by Bruce I. Kodish
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If the fund-raising letter motivated people to help, the Institute’s financial problems would have better chances of resolution. Korzybski maintained that the Institute, if it survived, had a useful function to serve in “breaking the hold of aristotelianism”. He penciled in those words below the last paragraph of a later mimeographed version of an April, 1944 memorandum that he wrote to Kendig “about his future-work program.” The paragraph read,
If the fund-raising letter motivated people to help, the Institute’s financial problems would have better chances of resolution. Korzybski maintained that the Institute, if it survived, had a useful function to serve in “breaking the hold of aristotelianism”. He penciled in those words below the last paragraph of a later mimeographed version of an April, 1944 memorandum that he wrote to Kendig “about his future-work program.” The paragraph read,
Please remember that my age and war injuries are getting to be a handicap and I have only a few years left for constructive work. And yet I feel that I still have something to contribute for the future of mankind. These few years should be spent in the most constructive way for the future, by preserving the Institute as a center for the training of future leaders, so that there will be some capable people able to carry on. Knowing the difficulties, I do not believe that without a special center such training of leaders can be accomplished, and I believe this should be the main immediate aim of the Institute. (1)They would do what they could. But 1944 was going to be a tough year. With registrations for seminars at their lowest point, Korzybski would only give two Institute seminars this year—plus lectures at the end of February at the Menninger Psychiatric Clinic in Topeka, Kansas and lectures at a University of Denver Workshop in August. Given the hobbling state of Institute finances and Korzybski’s goal to develop leaders, it seemed like a time to try new things.
Notes
You may download a pdf of all of the book's reference notes (including a note on primary source material and abbreviations used) from the link labeled Notes on the Contents page. The pdf of the Bibliography, linked on the Contents page contains full information on referenced books and articles.
1. “Memorandum From Alfred Korzybski to M. Kendig About His Future-Work Program”, April,1944. (Mimeographed IV/1945). IGS Archives.
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