"Let us imagine that the aboriginal-original human specimen was one of two brother apes, A and B; they were alike in every respect; both were animal space-binders; but something strange happened to B; he became the first time-binder, a human. β¦ He had thus a new faculty, he belonged to a new dimension; but, of course, he did not realize it; and because he had this new capacity he was able to analyze his brother "A"; he observed "A is my brother; he is an animal; but he is my brother; therefore, I AM AN ANIMAL." This fatal first conclusion, reached by false analogy, by neglecting a fact, has been the chief source of human woe for half a million years and it still survives. β¦ He [then] said to himself, "If I am an animal there is also in me something higher, a spark of some thing supernatural.""
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Philosophers from the United StatesPhilosophers from PolandMathematicians from the United StatesMathematicians from PolandEngineers from Poland
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
p. 67. Chapter: What is Man?
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Alfred Korzybski
Alfred Korzybski (3 July 1879 β 1 March 1950) was a Polish engineer, mathematician, and philosopher, most famous for creating the theory of General Semantics.
16 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Alfred Korzybski β
Related Quotes
"Humans can be literally poisoned by false ideas and false teachings. Many people have a just horror at the thought ofβ¦"
"To regard human beings as tools β as instruments β for the use of other human beings is not only unscientific but it β¦"
"Such as contribute most to human progress and human enlightenment β men like Gutenberg, Copernicus, Newton, Leibnitz,β¦"
"There is a fundamental confusion between the notion of the older 'semantics' as connected with a theory of verbal 'meβ¦"
"The only link between the verbal and objective world is exclusively structural, necessitating the conclusion that theβ¦"
""Say whatever you choose about the object, and whatever you might say is not it." Or, in other wordsΛ "Whatever you mβ¦"
"The map is not the territory β¦ The only usefulness of a map depends on similarity of structure between the empirical β¦"
"Any organism must be treated as-a-whole; in other words, that an organism is not an algebraic sum, a linear function β¦"
"The main thesis of this non-Aristotelian system is that as yet we all (with extremely few exceptions) copy animals inβ¦"
"Man's achievements rest upon the use of symbols.... we must consider ourselves as a symbolic, semantic class of life,β¦"