The third issue of 2023, ETC: A Review of General Semantics Vol. 80 No. 3, is in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

• Click here to download ETC 80:3 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents

Letter from the Editor

Christopher W. Mayer, "The Truth Is Not Out There: Korzybskian Themes in the Work of Richard Rorty"

Lance Strate, "The And"

Tiffany Petricini, "ChatGPT: Everything to Everyone all at Once"

Stephen Roxborough, "years ago (in galaxies far far away)"

Martin H. Levinson, "Dating Antisemitism: A Case Study"

Milton Dawes, "A Few Words About my Use of “Meta”"

John Rullo. "Artificial Love"

Eleni Chatzi, "The Buried History Within the Buried History"

Xristos Xousos, "The Crystal Gazer"

Martin H. Levinson, "Dating America’s Response to Alcohol: An Historical Overview"

Heather M. Crandall, "Civil Communication"

Jack Conley, Estafania Orjuela Parre, and Ashwin Vaidya, "A Semantic Guide for the Climate Perplexed"

David Miller, "Blend (for Sandy Bull)"

Joseph N. Agostino. "Institutionalization and Family Relationships of the Elderly"

Stan Kozikowski, "Othello’s Semantics of Body, Mind and Soul: America’s Racist Presidents, Devalued Higher Education, and Debased Priesthood"

Mary Lahman, "Practice Language Behaviors that Engage Others in Civil Discourse"

Josh Dold and Mary Lahman, "Action Plan: Non-Identity"

Wendy Mushenye and Mary Lahman, "Action Plan: Non-Identity"

Mary Lahman, "Moving Action Plans to Case Studies"

Samantha Campbell and Mary Lahman, "Traffic Stop Miscommunication: A Case Study"

Hope Gebhart, Adrianna Shires, and Mary Lahman, "A 'Free' Lesson in General Semantics"

Martin H. Levinson, Book Reviews

We are pleased to announce that a new edition of Alfred Korzybski's magnum opus, Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics is now available for sale in three different formats.

The Sixth Edition includes revised illustrations and index, and a new preface by IGS President Lance Strate, and is available in the traditional hardcover format with attractive book jacket, and for the first time in paperback and searchable ebook versions. 

This new edition of Science and Sanity, the first new edition in 30 years, marks the 90th anniversary of the original publication of Alfred Korzybski’s magnum opus. As a nonagenarian work, I think it reasonable to characterize this book as a classic. By this, I mean to place it in a category with the great works of the past, our common human heritage, the intellectual manifestation of our unique capacity for time-binding, to use Korzybski’s evocative neologism. Categorizing Science and Sanity as a classic speaks not only to its historical significance, but also to the overall quality of the work and its ongoing relevance. Undeniably, much has changed in the world since the ink dried on the first edition in 1933...  And yet, much remains the same when it comes to the difficulties we encounter due to our abuse and misuse of language and symbols, the problems we grapple with due to our assumptions and presumptions about the accuracy of our perceptions and preconceptions, the conflicts and struggles we face due to our ignorance and disregard of map-territory relationships, and our tendency to equate the two. No wonder, then, that interest in this general semantics urtext persists, demand continues unabated, and passionate debate over its merits, and its flaws, has not diminished.

⏤from the Preface to the 6th Edition by Lance Strate

In addition to being available for purchase from most major online booksellers, copies of Science and Sanity (6e) can be purchased through the IGS online bookstore. IGS members can request a discount coupon good for 15% off of all of our books and products. 

The newest publication in our Language in Action book series is now out: A.Eye Candy: A Museum of Imaginary Robots and Other Digital Delights by Corey Anton. 

Sure to dazzle your senses and inspire your imagination, A.EYE CANDY presents some deliciously bizarre, intriguing and weird images. It includes a variety of different robots, robots that are creating art, strange and odd imaginary creatures, and abstract "art-like" images. This lovely collection will keep you coming back again and again with an increased delight in every viewing. For anyone interested in imaginary robots, robot artists, surreal animals, abstract art, and/or the generative AI revolution, this "must have" coffee table book offers an absolute treasure trove.   

"In this lively book, Corey Anton reminds us that AI can be productively employed to stimulate the imagination. The sophisticated, often goofy (often both) characters are funny, tragic, creative and unique. The 'Imaginary art exhibition' contains kaleidoscopic images which resist definition in the same way that great artworks resist definition. Whether you approach this book as a collection of artworks, or a compendium of AI imagery - A.EYE Candy is an entertaining exploration of the modern hybrid imagination."

⏤Dom Heffer, Artist (UK) 

"In his uniquely brilliant way, Corey Anton has crafted A.EYE Candy to advance both wisdom about the explosion of generative AI and inspiration for its use. By thoughtfully and expertly exploring the potential of AI as its own artistic medium, Anton has brought forth emotionally evocative and appealing imagery, inviting us all to suspend judgment of AI's capabilities and partake in intriguing new ways of creating, seeing and knowing."   

⏤Julianne Newton, Professor of Visual Communication & Director of the Communication and Media Studies Doctoral Program, University of Oregon  

"Prepare to go fishing with Corey Anton. In his introduction, Anton advances fishing as a helpful metaphor for the process of tweaking and refining the prompts that reeled in all the gorgeous AI-generated images in this book. And what a museum they comprise: a potent cocktail of whimsy and nightmare fuel. You'll see robots, robot artists, a bestiary beyond human imagining, and abstract spaces where forms struggle to assert themselves. Is it art? With a general semanticist's distrust of the copula of identity, Anton unasks that question, choosing to foreground human intent, which was "to generate images that are aesthetically pleasing." Whether you're gazing in wonder at Escher-y scenes, considering an armadillo-tardigrade chimera or puzzling out the Bosch-like forms slithering through less figurative pieces, you're sure to find something that challenges your perceptions in interesting ways. So grab the chum bucket and get ready to experience the rapture of the deep." 

⏤John McDaid, Adjunct Professor, Roger Williams University 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Acknowledgements  

Welcome to the Museum 

Exhibit One: A Range of Robots  

Exhibit Two: Robot Artists 

Exhibit Three: Fantastical Animals 

Exhibit Four: Imaginary Art Installation  

Appendix A: Eye Gari 

To order A.Eye Candy form the IGS store, click here.

The second issue of 2023, ETC: A Review of General Semantics Vol. 80 No. 2, is in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

• Click here to download ETC 80:2 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents

Letter from the Editor

Corey Anton, "A Dialogue with ChatGPT about Nonidentity: A Demonstration of a Range of Basic AI Capabilities"

Maria Polski & Olga Hazanova, "Introduction to the Work of Yuri Rozhdestvensky"Menippean Satire"

Alexandre Lobodanov, "Types of Communication in Semiotic Systems"

Natalia Guermanova, "Yuri Rozhdestvensky on Patterns of Cultural Evolution, Language Standardization, and Media Ecology"

Olga E. Hazanova, "Yuri Rozhdestvensky on Speech Media in the Light of his Philosophy of Language and Culture, and in Dialogue with Marshall McLuhan"

Anna A. Novikova, "Transmedia Storytelling in Education as a Practice of Media Ecology"

Liudmila Salieva, "New Media Environment, Challenges of Modern Education, and the Old Art of Rhetoric"; Dale Winslow, "Salutation and Soft Deception"

Peter Zhang, Richard John Lynn & Chen Bing, "Jiucai (Chinese Chives) Song"

Jane Blanchard, "Early August"Other Poems": 

Jane Blanchard, "Bird Feeder"

Carmine Giordano, "Ding An Sich"

Richard Fiordo, "Words and Things"

Julian Costa, "Ode to a Star"

Martin H. Levinson, Book Reviews

The video recordings of our online Ecologies of Mind, Media, and Meaning 2 Symposium held on April 29, 2023 via Zoom are now available via the IGS YouTube channel. For more information about the symposium, see our event page. 

The first issue of 2023, ETC: A Review of General Semantics Vol. 80 No. 1, is in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

• Click here to download ETC 80:1 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents

Letter from the Editor

David Sobelman, "Addendum to Prof on First"

Thomas J. Farrell, "Walter Ong, Marshall McLuhan, and Eric McLuhan’s Two Books on Menippean Satire"

Lance Strate, "The Issue of Is: A Commentary on the
Case against the Verb 'To Be'"

Devkumar Trivedi, "To Know or Not to Know to Be-Lieve or Not to Be-Lieve [That Is the Question]"

Diane Cypkin, "The Prophet Ignored: Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky and the Coming of the Holocaust"

Martin H. Levinson, "What the Fuck: Examining an “Obscene” Term"

Gina Valenti, "Art as a Counter-Environment during Lockdown"

Stan Kozikowski, "The Unread and Unknown Beowulf, Monstrous Evil, Ephesians VI 11–15, Psychomachia, and Negligible Tolkien: Revisiting with General Textual Semantics"

Martin H. Levinson and Katherine Liepe-Levinson, "Selections from Signal Reactions and Other Poems": 

Katherine-Liepe Levinson, "Happier Than Me,

Martin H. Levinson, "Is Everybody Happy?" 

Katherine Liepe-Levinson, "From All Over" 

Martin H. Levinson, "Labels"

Katherine Liepe-Levinson, "Virtually Speaking"

 Martin H. Levinson, "Where It’s @"

 Katherine Liepe-Levinson, "Warm Waters"

 Martin H. Levinson, "Every Day is Earth Day"

Katherine Liepe-Levinson, "Levels of Abstraction"

 Martin H. Levinson, "Ode to the Structural Differential"

Xristos Xousos, "Nothing in the Universe"

Xristos Xousos, "Ananda"

Andrew McLuhan, "Five Bloody Cannons"

Dale Winslow, "Transition Breathes above Desire"

Aaron R. Boyson, "Paper Cuts"

Martin H. Levinson, Book Reviews

The IGS sponsored a program session at the annual International Communication Association conference in Toronto, May 26th-29th, in Toronto. The program, entitled What Makes Politic Talk, or, Is It Time’s Up for the Democratic Experiment: General Semantics Perspectives, was chaired by IGS Trustee Laura Trujillo-Liñán, and featured addresses by IGS officers Thom Gencarelli, on "Media Bias, Two-Party Politics, and the Two-Valued Orientation: Why the U.S. Finds Itself on the Edge of a Second Civil War," and Lance Strate, on "The Double Bind of Rational Political Discourse".

Trujillo-Liñán, Gencarelli, and Strate also participated in a session sponsored by the Media Ecology Association.

Filmmaker TC McLuhan answers questions and gives away signed copies of her movie posters following the April 25th screening of her documentary, The Frontier Gandhi, at the Players in New York City. IGS President Lance Strate serves as moderator.

The Institute of General Semantics

and the

New York Society for General Semantics

are Proud to Present a Screening of

The Frontier Gandhi:

Badshah Khan, A Torch for Peace

A Film by TC McLuhan

Tuesday, April 25th, 2023

The screening will be free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Filmmaker, author, and IGS Fellow TC (Teri) McLuhan will be present to introduce and answer questions about the documentary.

For more information and to register, click here.

Our long-awaited double issue 79:3-4 (2022) of ETC: A Review of General Semantics is in the mail and is now available for download from the IGS Store in searchable PDF format.

• Click here to download ETC 79:3-4 from the IGS Store.

Table of Contents Preview

Letter from the Editor

Lance Strate, Introduction to Special Issue on Manhood of Humanity

Martin H. Levinson, Manhood of Humanity Revisited

Bini B. S., The Time-Binding Class of Life: Making Sense of Human Beings and Their Epistemic-Cognitive-Performative Faculties

Sanjay Mukherjee, Tallying (with) Korzybski;

David Hewson, Review of Manhood of Humanity

Tonisha Guin, The Subject of Knowledge: Reading Manhood of Humanity as an Identity Project

Lance Strate, Science, Progress, and Korzybski’s Progressive Vision

Rakesh Desai, The Civil and the Evil: Korzybski’s  Manhood of Humanity

Thom Gencarelli, Time-Binding and Art/Time-Binding in Art

Henna B. Muliyana, Evaluating If This Is a Man by Primo Levi Through Time-Binding

Prashant Chauhan, Effective? Time-Binding—A Revisit

Pratiksha N. Chavada, “Nurturing the Nature”: Re-Evaluation of Select Novels of Dhruv Bhatt through Time-Binding

Deesha Lathigara, Binding Time through Folktales

Devyani Chauhan. A, Dharmaraja Yudhisthira as a Failed Time-Binder as Well as a Wrong Evaluator