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The Institute of General Semantics offers classes and seminars at introductory and advanced levels

Classes & Seminars

The Institute of General Semantics offers classes and seminars at introductory and advanced levels on a variety of topics related to general semantics and the teaching of the multidisciplinary subject.  Some are regularly scheduled and some are available upon request.  View Archive


Upcoming events

    • 3 Oct 2025
    • 5 Oct 2025
    • The Players Club, 16 Gramercy Park S, New York, NY 10003
    Register


    Registration is for 

    In-Person Attendance ONLY

    and will be open at a later date 


    All IGS Members in Good Standing Will Receive Instructions on How to Livestream the Event Online Prior to the AKML

    The 73rd Annual 

    Alfred Korzybski

    Memorial Lecture

    and the Symposium on

    Discourse,

    Dialogue,

    and Democracy

    October 3rd-5th, 2025

    for the Call for Papers Click Here

    Co-Sponsored by the

    New York Society for General Semantics

    the International Bateson Institute

    the Media Ecology Association

    the Tomkins Institute

    and the 404 Festival of Art and Technology

    featuring

    Tristan Harris

    Tristan Harris is Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology (CHT), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to align technology with humanity’s best interests. He regularly briefs heads of state, technology CEOs, and US Congress members, in addition to mobilizing millions of people around the world through mainstream media. Tristan has explored the influences that hijack human attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs, from his childhood as a magician to his coursework in Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab to his leadership as a Design Ethicist at Google. Today, he studies how major technology platforms wield dangerous power over our ability to make sense of the world and leads the call for systemic change. In 2020, Tristan was featured in the two-time Emmy-winning Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma. The film unveiled how social media is dangerously reprogramming our brains and human civilization. It reached over 100 million people in 190 countries across 30 languages. His viral presentation, The AI Dilemma, with Aza Raskin, maps where we’re heading with AI and how we can respond. As a co-host of the top-rated technology podcast, Your Undivided Attention, he explores the drivers behind social media’s race for attention, its destabilization of society, and potential solutions. 


    The lecture, dinner, and symposium are being held at the historic Players Club in Gramercy Park, Manhattan. 

    Registration is free for IGS members and their guests, but all attendees must be registered in advance in order to gain admittance to the club. More information regarding the dinner and symposium schedule will be made available at a later date.

    Please note that as an historic 19th century landmark, the site is not handicap accessible. Dress code is business casual and is strictly enforced, including no sneakers, shorts, ripped jeans, t-shirts).

Past events

9 Jun 2025 General Semantics Seminar
29 Apr 2025 Gary Gumpert Memorial & McLuhan Screening
19 Apr 2025 Communication, Consciousness, and Culture II Symposium
10 Feb 2025 Language and Thought Online Course
30 Sep 2024 Science and Sanity Sixth Edition Reading Group
20 Sep 2024 AKML & Symposium
25 Jul 2024 Navigating the Now: A Guide to Recognizing What is Going On? A 3-Day General Semantics Seminar
1 May 2024 Film Screening: Man on a Mission
27 Apr 2024 Non-Aristotelian Perspectives, Ecological Approaches, and the Anthropocene II Symposium
4 Mar 2024 Language and Thought Online Course
15 Feb 2024 Michelle Shocked & bluerace In Concert
12 Dec 2023 "I Feel, Therefore I Am": Reviewing the Thought and Work of Silvan Tomkins
22 Nov 2023 The Calculus as A Psychological Tool
27 Oct 2023 AKML and Symposium
16 Oct 2023 So You Want to Change the World? A Hitchhiker's Guide to Subversive Thinking
18 Sep 2023 Comprehending & Minimizing Interpersonal Conflict: An Adaptation of Laing, Philipson, & Lee’s Interpersonal Perception Method
7 Aug 2023 Language and Thought Online Course
19 Jun 2023 General Semantics Seminar
25 May 2023 Some Perspective on the Perspective of Communication and Media Revolutions
29 Apr 2023 Ecologies of Mind, Media, and Meaning 2 Symposium
25 Apr 2023 Film Screening: The Frontier Gandhi
26 Mar 2023 General Semantics and Epistemics: The Science-Art of Innovating
21 Feb 2023 EmpathyA is not EmpathyB is not EmpathyC
31 Jan 2023 What is Warm Data?
12 Dec 2022 Metaphors and Definitions: A General Semantics Look at the Language of Pain, Addiction, and the Opioid Epidemic
11 Nov 2022 Challenging Some Common-Sense Notions About Language
28 Oct 2022 The Issue of Is: A Commentary on the Case Against the Verb “To Be”
7 Oct 2022 AKML and Symposium
29 Sep 2022 How to Improve Your Thinking and Communicating Ability Using General Semantics
21 Sep 2022 The Map is Not the Territory
25 Jun 2022 Science, Sanity, and the Semantic Environment II: An Online Symposium
6 Apr 2022 Totem and Taboo in Contemporary Talk
1 Oct 2021 AKML and Symposium

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Phone: +1 (646) 363-6375
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ETC contributes to and advances the understanding of language, thought, and behavior. Each issue of ETC provides the latest research and discourse on general semantics.

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