Monday, December 17, 2012

From the Stray Thought Bin – 'Verifiable Truth'

What kind of difference would it make if I sought to falsify

my maps rather than verify them? Can any of my maps 'be' 

100% verifiably 'true' for all time? Would I talk and act more 

carefully if I held my own maps and those of others as 

tentative forever? As far as I know, the best I can achieve 

remains—as Korzybski said—maximum probability of 

predictibility.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

GS & Stoicism: A Personal View

GS has stoicism in its family tree, as I noted in this article here a short while ago. Guillaume Andrieu, the Editor of the New Stoa Newsletter has just published an interview with me where I discuss in more detail my own history with stoicism and discuss its relationship with Korzybski's work.  Here it is: New Stoa Spotlight on Bruce Kodish

Sunday, December 2, 2012

From the Stray Thought Bin - 'Every Diamond-Moment'

Every moment is like a diamond with untold many facets and the consciousness of that moment can touch only a very few. 


http://www.deccanchronicle.com/141104/commentary-op-ed/article/jewel-indra%E2%80%99s-net

From the Stray Thought Bin - 'Lazy Thinking'

Unfortunately, thinking carefully and deeply about things that matter most takes more time than many people wish to give it and as a result they succumb to sloganeering and superficial thought. 

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Election Maps


A map is not the territory it supposedly represents, but rather, only more or less similar in structure to the supposed territory.

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Korzybski on Poetry

"...poetry often conveys in a few sentences more of lasting value than a whole volume of scientific analysis." 
— Alfred Korzybski, 
p. 437, Science and Sanity

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Korzybski's Legacy (2012): What 'Is' it? How Do We Carry It On?

I presented this a year ago at the 2011 Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture Weekend Conference in New York City. What I said about the state of general semantics and the Institute still holds. Since the 2012 conference is coming up, this seems like a good time to re-post this for anyone with an interest in the condition of Korzybski's legacy today.  Click right here to link to the downloadable file: Korzybski's Legacy...

Sunday, October 7, 2012

From the Stray Thought Bin - "Thinking About Thinking"


My endless inquiring makes it possible for me to achieve something at any given date— I get to think about my own thoughts of the situation in which I find myself. 

I even think that I think of it. 

This gives me the power of flexibility to go with change. 

I embrace the infinite progressive sequence of abstracting myself to a higher level of abstraction, of mapping a map, mapping myself, a process I seek to continue indefinitely. 

I don't call a halt to the process, because I momentarily have to stop at a given point in it. 

I accept the 'infinite' and accept that though I'm a part of it, I can't possess it. 

I don't identify myself with one fixed point along the way. 

I look 'down' from my viewpoint at a date and appreciate the  broader view. 

Because I  don't reject the  knowledge that I do have because it always has some degree of uncertainty, I take courage. 

I can pinch my finger. 

I can feel my breath.

I can feel the ground beneath my feet. 

It is not words. 

Whatever I say it 'is', is not it.