Alfred Korzybski

@Scholar who Developed the Field of General Semantics, Timeline and Childhood

Alfred Korzybski was a Polish American scholar who developed a field called general semantics

Jul 3, 1879

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: July 3, 1879
  • Died on: March 1, 1950
  • Nationality: Polish
  • Famous: Scholar who Developed the Field of General Semantics, Intellectuals & Academics, Philosophers
  • Spouses: Mira Edgerly
  • Known as: Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski
  • Founder / Co-Founder:
    • Institute of General Semantics

Alfred Korzybski born at

Warsaw

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Birth Place

He met Mira Edgerly, an accomplished portrait painter, during the late 1910s and married her in 1919. This union lasted until his death.

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Personal Life

He had always been an active man and his hectic schedule began to take a toll on his health during the later years. He died due to coronary thrombosis on March 1, 1950.

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Personal Life

He was born on July 3, 1879, in Warsaw, Poland, into an aristocratic family which had produced several mathematicians, scientists and engineers for generations.

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Childhood & Early Life

His parents were very wealthy and they ensured that he got the best education. He learnt Polish at home, Russian at school, and French and German from his governesses. By the time he was a teenager he was fluent in all the four of these languages.

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Childhood & Early Life

He managed his father’s farm for sometime before entering the Warsaw University of Technology to study engineering.

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Childhood & Early Life

When the World War I broke out he volunteered for service in the Second Russian Army where he served as an intelligence officer in the General Staff Intelligence Department.

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Career

During his service he sustained a hip injury when his horse was shot out from under him. He also badly wounded his leg and suffered from internal injuries.

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Career

He was assigned to Camp Petawawa testing grounds in Canada in December 1915 to observe new artillery tests. Then he moved to the United States to coordinate the shipment of artillery to Russia. Over there he also assisted the United States government by promoting the sale of war bonds.

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Career

After the revolution of 1917 and the collapse of the Russian army, he joined the French-Polish army.

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Career

He decided to stay in the United States after the war. The war experiences had a profound impact on him. He wondered why human beings engaged in such bloodshed and meaningless violence. This led him to compare human behavior with that of animals and he studied the differences between the two.

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Career

He is best known for developing the field of general semantics which is a philosophical approach to language. It seeks to explore the relationship between the form of language and its use, and attempts to regulate human’s capacity to express ideas.

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Major Works