General Semantics

An exposition of the approach to the algebraization of sentential logics developed by the Barcelona logic group.

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To one who has just begun to make his acquaintance with the literature of general semantics, Mother Gorman's book will prove an invaluable guide. From her first chapter giving a historical sketch of the main ideas to her final chapter surveying the ways in which they have influenced education in America, the book is a mine of useful information. Mother Gorman is not a general semanticist. Her reservations about what she regards as the profound philosophical errors of general semantics naturally keep her from aligning herself with this school of thought. But she is an unusually interested bystander and a diligent scholar. Hence she has made an extremely thorough search of the literature, with the result that in many ways she knows a lot more about general semantics than many who call themselves semanticists.--S. I. Hayakawa

The subject of semantics has been appropriated by various disciplines including linguistic philosophy, logic, cognitive psychology, anthropological linguistics, and computer technology. As a result, it is difficult to define the study of semantics as an actual discipline without discovering what each field using a semantic approach to its subject matter has contributed to the understanding of what words mean. This volume is a result of those discoveries. Primarily an introductory work, this volume outlines the approaches that various disciplines have taken to the subject, attempts to show their relationships and their limitations, and presents the more important aspects of each approach -- from psychosemantics to artificial intelligence -- using pertinent source material from psychology, philosophy, logic, linguistics, and sociology. For individuals coming to the study of semantics for the first time, or those who are interested in what the overall study may offer beyond their specialization, this volume will provide a helpful overview of the subject.

Fifty-six items, plus documentary 'supplements', can be considered a biographical as well as theoretical working edition of the origins and development of Korzybski's revolutionary system called "general semantics".