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Levels of Knowing and Existence: Studies in General Semantics
Book by Weinberg, Harry L.
- GenresNonfictionLanguage
Paperback
Published January 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 26, 2009
Don’t be put off by the title. A very plainly and wonderfully written work which clarified for me in plain language much of the work of Alfred Korzybski whose seminal work, Science and Sanity, was published in 1933. I have read and reread Science and Sanity over the years yet it wasn’t until I read Weinberg’s work that the ideas therein really caught me.
Recommended to me by the great engineer and metaphysician, Bill Davis of Santa Fe, New Mexico, I was overwhelmed by the straightforward speech and matter of fact way in which Weinberg brought Korzybski’s ideas out of the 1930s and into the ‘modern’ age of the late 1950s. It was a breath of fresh air. I read it cover to cover twice without a book in between.
If you are interested in how words affect behavior and the relationship between words and the non-verbal ‘world’, you might really like this book. For a nonfiction book there is an amazing unexpected ending as he brings the work of D.T. Suzuki into the mix. I did not see that coming and was pleasantly surprised.
Recommended to me by the great engineer and metaphysician, Bill Davis of Santa Fe, New Mexico, I was overwhelmed by the straightforward speech and matter of fact way in which Weinberg brought Korzybski’s ideas out of the 1930s and into the ‘modern’ age of the late 1950s. It was a breath of fresh air. I read it cover to cover twice without a book in between.
If you are interested in how words affect behavior and the relationship between words and the non-verbal ‘world’, you might really like this book. For a nonfiction book there is an amazing unexpected ending as he brings the work of D.T. Suzuki into the mix. I did not see that coming and was pleasantly surprised.
October 20, 2013
I have read this book cover-to-cover at least three times since it was published. I have also read the book that inspired it, Science and Sanity and found it to be a difficult read (as befits a source-book). This is a much more readable work, and helped me to understand some concepts that were still pretty fuzzy to me. This work is still in print at a reasonable cost. I'd like for it to be made available as an ebook.
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October 16, 2017Levels of Knowing and Existence. Sounds incredibly boring, right?
It was not boring for me. Reading this book transformed my understanding of the ideas I had found as a younger man in the esoteric traditions of the east and west.
It was my introduction to general semantics, and the power, role, and function of words and language in human thought and perception and views of the world we find ourselves inhabiting.
Long before reading this I had conceived for myself a concept that I labeled "levels within levels", based on ideas that I found in a number of places, but most completely articulated in the hermetic ideas of the universe as a system of microcosms and macrocosms, as above so below, and in the `qabalistuic ( or cabalistic or kabbalistic, lol )ideas of the spheres or sepheroth forming dynamically connected levels of mind and universe.
I found in Weinbergs GS language and models a nearly identical concept of levels, but this one, rather than appearing to have any obvious 'metaphysical' characrteristics, was rooted in something very close to every human being.
The effect of words. The power of words to convey ideas between minds, and in doing so, to actively shape what they minds did and could do. To functionally shape and 'create' the world we perceived with raw body sensory input.
Orders of abstraction, levels of language, with complex ideas and words built upon simpler words and ideas. the firther down the stack pof levels one goes, the more primal and unquestionable the words become. "I", "You", "Come", "Go", "Yes", "No", "Give", "Take", "In", "Out"; one syllable old-germanic (in the case of we english speakers) grunts and barks conveying a meaning that our brains as infants used to build a bubble of consensus reality around ourselves, tied into the reality bubbles of our family, kin, and tribes.
it may not affect you as it did me. I think there was a great deal of "Right Time" effect in how the book impacted my world view.
But it's still the most readable and powerful intro to General Semantics that I have ever read.
It was not boring for me. Reading this book transformed my understanding of the ideas I had found as a younger man in the esoteric traditions of the east and west.
It was my introduction to general semantics, and the power, role, and function of words and language in human thought and perception and views of the world we find ourselves inhabiting.
Long before reading this I had conceived for myself a concept that I labeled "levels within levels", based on ideas that I found in a number of places, but most completely articulated in the hermetic ideas of the universe as a system of microcosms and macrocosms, as above so below, and in the `qabalistuic ( or cabalistic or kabbalistic, lol )ideas of the spheres or sepheroth forming dynamically connected levels of mind and universe.
I found in Weinbergs GS language and models a nearly identical concept of levels, but this one, rather than appearing to have any obvious 'metaphysical' characrteristics, was rooted in something very close to every human being.
The effect of words. The power of words to convey ideas between minds, and in doing so, to actively shape what they minds did and could do. To functionally shape and 'create' the world we perceived with raw body sensory input.
Orders of abstraction, levels of language, with complex ideas and words built upon simpler words and ideas. the firther down the stack pof levels one goes, the more primal and unquestionable the words become. "I", "You", "Come", "Go", "Yes", "No", "Give", "Take", "In", "Out"; one syllable old-germanic (in the case of we english speakers) grunts and barks conveying a meaning that our brains as infants used to build a bubble of consensus reality around ourselves, tied into the reality bubbles of our family, kin, and tribes.
it may not affect you as it did me. I think there was a great deal of "Right Time" effect in how the book impacted my world view.
But it's still the most readable and powerful intro to General Semantics that I have ever read.
February 14, 2019
I must've read this book several times while in high school--it was very influential for shaping my understanding of the way language and perception are linked. I credit it with steering me towards getting degrees in philosophy. Many years later, I actually bought "Science and Sanity," but never managed to sit down and read it.
March 31, 2016
favorite. book. (ever?)
September 20, 2022
This is a phenomenal book. It's not meant to be an introduction to General Semanics, but it can be picked up by someone who is not familiar with the subject. It will introduce you to a whole slew of interesting ideas, that are actually applicable and practical in 'real life'. Additionally, Weinberg goes through some of life's biggest questions and applies his 'time binding' powers of general semantics to them. This is well worth a read.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews