Here’s Something About General Semantics

Cover, Here's Something About General Semantics

A Primer for Making Sense of Your World, by Steve Stockdale (2009)

  • Available in eBook format (PDF) for immediate free download
  • ISBN 978-0-9824645-0-2; 290 pages.
  • Accessible, well-written introduction to GS principles, plus more!
  • Written from 13 years teaching experience.
  • Filled with examples, demonstrations, and explanations; over 50 illustrations.
  • Includes articles from the GS journal (ETC) and newspaper columns.
  • Thirteen pages of Notes and Sources; Index of 270 names.
  • Appropriate for all learners and teachers, middle grades through university.
  • Learn how language and other symbols influence how you perceive your world,
    how you respond to your perceptions, and how you think-and-talk about your responses.

The world in which we live is a world of differences. When we disregard differences, we generalize. When we generalize inappropriately, we stereotype, forming biases and prejudices. Troubles inevitably follow. We need to learn how to more critically differentiate, or discern, between what happens in our lives, how we respond, and how we think-and-talk. This book explains and applies the principles of General Semantics to promote an ongoing awareness of differences that make a difference. The book advocates an informed, open, and tolerant world view, deliberately derived from what we currently know from integrating the sciences, arts, and humanities … without deference to dogmas, traditions, or what passes for culturally-dependent “common sense.”

  • The book consists of a 4 MB PDF file. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software, Version 7 or later. Download the PDF.
  • Given the passage of time, many of the links embedded in the PDF no longer work.

What’s in the Book?

PREFACE: Something About This Book

  • How I Learned About General Semantics
  • Why GS is “quest-worthy”
  • How GS is consistent with current neuroscience understanding
  • Benefits of GS as reported by university students

Part 1 Introductions to General Semantics

  • Introduction
  • A Structured System of Formulations
  • Some Questions and Answers About GS
  • A Tutorial
  • Two Video Reviews
  • Seven Stories to Illustrate Some GS Principles

Part 2 Explanations and Descriptions

  • Report from an 8-Day Seminar-Workshop
  • My ME Model
  • Report from a Weekend Seminar
  • About “Mindfulness” and GS
  • The Girl and the Match
  • Other Descriptions of General Semantics
  • An Explanation of the Structural Differential
  • 13 Symptoms of Language Misbehaviors
  • A GS Perspective

Part 3 Extensions and Applications

  • Toward an Informed World View
  • Eating Menus
  • Calling Out the Symbol Rulers
  • Words by Other Names
  • Response Side Semantics
  • Semantic Pollution Fouling the Airwaves
  • How Do You Play the Game?
  • But What If …?
  • A Fence Sieve Language
  • Why Make a Federal Case Out of Bad Words?
  • How to Size Your (Thinking) Box
  • The Bridge at Neverwas

Part 4 Some History

  • General Semantics Across the Curriculum
  • Snooping Around the Time-Binding Attic
  • Heinlein and Ellis: Converging Competencies

SUPPLEMENTARIES

  • Full Transcript, “Lay Off of My PERSUADE Shoes”
  • Bib-Vid-liography: Some Resources
  • An Essay on Levels of Abstractions

NOTES AND SOURCES

INDEX OF NAMES