rationalskepticism.org

Zwaarddijk wrote:

psikeyhackr wrote:A lot of so called logic is semantic bullshit.

You need to filter out THE TYRANNY OF WORDS

THE TYRANNY OF WORDS by Stuart Chase
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/artic ... 06,00.html

But a brief grounding in semantics is a life work in itself. Modern semantics dates from 1923, when two English professors. C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards, wrote a book called The Meaning QJ Meaning, followed by Ogden's invention of an 850-word vocabulary called Basic English. Indicative of the complexity of semantics is the fact that while Ogden is an orthologist and psychologist and Richards is an esthetician, important contributions have been made by a Polish mathematician, Count Alfred Korzybski, and a Harvard physicist, Percy Williams Bridgman. Semantics ranges from the equator of Basic English through the lush tropics of political bunkum to the North Pole of James Joyce's word-coining.

I struggled through most of Korzybski's Science and Sanity decades ago but I never heard of The Tyranny of Words until last year. So if this society really wanted most people to think straight why isn't the book common knowledge. The culture is designed to keep most people confused.

Sci-fi writers like Heinlein and A.E. van Vogt were into General Semantics in the 50s. It got incorporated into their works.

http://www.roger-russell.com/sffun/nulla.htm

psik

For everyone else, Korzybski's work is recognized as pseudo-science, and should be approached as the bullshit it is.