Science and Sanity

Sixth Edition
Reading Group

The Institute of General Semantics is pleased to announce that our long-awaited reading group devoted to the new edition of Alfred Korzybski's magnum opus will be held this autumn, following our annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture and symposium. The reading group will be led by IGS President Lance Strate on Monday evenings beginning September 30th, and continuing through to December 23rd.

Alfred Korzybski's Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics was first published in 1933, and has remained in print for over 90 years now, with the Sixth Edition having been published in 2023, and available in the traditional hardcover version, and new paperback and searchable ebook versions.

As the work that introduced general semantics to the world, Science and Sanity is essential reading for anyone interested in the topic, and remains highly influential in many other fields and disciplines. And yet, this is a book that has often been misunderstood, and universally acknowledged as challenging and difficult to read. For this reason, we will bring together new readers and seasoned veterans for the first time to discuss Korzybski's work in an online live forum via Zoom.

All references and page numbers in the discussion will be based on print versions of the Sixth Edition, which differs somewhat from previous editions. If you do not have a copy of the new edition, you can obtain one through any major online bookseller, and via the IGS's online bookstore (IGS members can obtain a 15% discount by emailing orders at generalsemantics.org for the coupon code). 

Registration is free and open to the public. You do not have to be a member of the Institute of General Semantics to join the reading group, but it is strongly encouraged. Registrants will receive information for joining the Zoom session in an email reminder. Sessions will be recorded and made available for viewing to IGS members. 

Schedule

Note that every session will run from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM New York Time. For the sessions scheduled from Sept. 30th to Oct. 28th this will be Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4), and from Nov. 4th to Dec. 23rd it will be Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5).

The following are the dates and sections of the book to be discussed:

September 30: All front matter, including Prefaces to the 6th, 5th, 4th, & 3rd editions, Introduction to the 2nd edition, and Preface to the 1st edition

October 7: Book 1 Part 1

October 14: Book 1 Part 2

October 21: Book 1 Part 3

October 28: Book 1 Part 4

November 4: Book 1 Part 5

November 11: No Meeting

November 18: Book 1 Part 6

November 25: Book 2 Part 7

December 2: Book 3 Prefatory Remarks & Part 8

December 9: Book 3 Part 9

December 16: Book 3 Part 10

December 23: Supplements