Gad Horowitz – Radical General Semantics
The Book of Radical General Semantics, arranged into seven Parts, begins with a new look at the motor of Korzybski’s general semantics – the Structural Differential. Part II introduces Silent Practice – attention to sensory experience – as integral to saner evaluative processes. Silent Practice precedes The Devices of General Semantics (Part III) as it is a skill that facilitates that “fraction of a second psycho-logical delay” intended by the devices. In Part IV, The “Self” and Free Will, the Structural Differential is turned inward to provide a multi-levelled map of one’s very own self in which oneself is three: event-self, object-self, label-self. In Part V, Politics, the devices and formulations of general semantics are applied to such diverse issues as President Obama’s ‘You Didn’t Build That’ speech, the ultra-left ‘Tiqqun’ group, and the Canadian monarchy. The Meta Model purposely comes late (Part VI) in the book. Here Gad returns the Meta Model developed as a practice within Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to its origin in General Semantics. Part VII. Participation: Myth Art Religion brings together a number of resonances of radical general semantics with studies of music, photography, phenomenology, filming theoretical concepts, writing, myth and religion. While most of the writing is by Gad Horowitz, Colin Campbell has contributed a number of very rich chapters especially in Part VII.
