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It is amusing to discover, in the twentieth century, that the quarrels between
two lovers, two mathematicians, two nations, two economics systems.,
usually assumed insoluble in a ‘finite period’ should exhibit one mechanism —
the semantic mechanism of identification — the discovery of which makes
universal agreement possible, in mathematics and in life.
— Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity, Supplement III, p. 761
The universe is not a museum with its specimens in glass cases. Nor is the universe a perfectly
drilled regiment with its ranks in step, marching forward with undisturbed poise. Such notions
belong to the fable of modern science—a very useful fable when understood for what it is. Science
deals with large average effects, important within certain modes of observation. But in the
history of human thought no scientific conclusion has ever survived unmodified by radical
increase in our subtleties of relevant knowledge.
Alfred North Whitehead, Modes of Thought, lecture 5
Of course all our terms of speech are too special, and refer too explicitly to higher stages of
experience. For this reason, philosophy is analogous to imaginative art. It suggests meanings beyond
its mere statements. On the whole, elaborate phrases enshrine the more primitive meanings.
Alfred North Whitehead, Modes of Thought, Lecture 6.
This idea means that civilisation has moved, is moving, and will move in a desirable direction.
but in order to judge that we are moving in a desirable direction we should have to know precisely
what the destination is. To the minds of most people the desirable outcome of human development
would be a condition of society in which all the inhabitants of the planet would enjoy a perfectly
happy existence. But it is impossible to be sure that civilisation is moving in the right direction
to realise this aim. Certain features of our "progress" may be urged as presumptions in its favour,
but there are always offsets, and it has always been easy to make out a case that, from the point
of view of increasing happiness, the tendencies of our progressive civilisation are far from
desirable. In short, it cannot be proved that the unknown destination towards which man is advancing
is desirable. The movement may be Progress, or it may be in an undesirable direction and therefore
not Progress. This is a question of fact, and one which is at present as insoluble as the question
of personal immortality. It is a problem which bears on the mystery of life.
The Idea of Progress J. B. Bury, Introduction
As all possible theories are dependent on human ingenuity
and never can be the events themselves, we can rest assured
that once freed from ‘emotional stupors’ and semantic
disturbances, the world will not be long in producing a whole
structurally unified system of science.
Alfred Korzybski, Science and Sanity, Chapter XXXIX, p. 681
[1933 - still waiting….] [The freedom has not occurred yet.]