korzybski

Human beings are limited in what they know by (1) the structure of their nervous systems, and (2) the structure of their languages.

Human beings cannot experience the world directly, but only through their "abstractions" (nonverbal impressions or "gleanings" derived from the nervous system, and verbal indicators expressed and derived from language).

The map is not the territory.



Alfred Korzybski

pic: Lincoln in Dalivision by Salvador Dali, lithograph, 1977