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 Cancer Celebrities Polish Intellectuals & Academics Philosophers Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski was a Polish American scholar credited to have developed the field of general semantics. General Semantics, which is distinct from the field of semantics, is a program that seeks to regulate the evaluative operations performed in the human brain. Korzybski, who had always been interested in studying the complexities of the human brain, was of the view that human knowledge is not only limited by the human nervous system, but also by the languages developed by the humans, and thus no human being can have access to the absolute reality. An engineer by profession, he was a keen observer of human behavior. What he found the most intriguing about human nature was the fact that in spite of the advancements man has made in the fields of mathematics, science and technology, human beings still are unable to comprehend how their own brains functioned. Thus he took to studying human behavior in detail and his works culminated in the development of what came to be known as general semantics. This field soon gained recognition as a science and was taught in colleges and universities as a part of their courses. He is best known for the dictum, "the map is not the territory", indicating that an actual object is different from its representation.

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 Information Detail 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 Birth Place Warsaw Gender Male Sun Sign Cancer Born in Warsaw Famous as Scholar who developed the field of General Semantics Died at Age 70

Warsaw

Alfred Korzybski born at Unsplash 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. Unsplash 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. Unsplash 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. Unsplash 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. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

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

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

Information	Detail
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
Birth Place	Warsaw
Gender	Male
Sun Sign	Cancer
Born in	Warsaw
Famous as	Scholar who developed the field of General Semantics
Died at Age	70

Alfred Korzybski

Polish

Jul 3, 1879

Biography

Personal Details

Warsaw