Definition of: general semantics

A discipline for human living, formulated by Alfred Korzybski, involving a critical analysis of verbal and non-verbal symbols as these enter into behavioral responses, and a denial of the universality of Aristotelian logic: in practice using a methodology based on modern science, distinguishing carefully between levels of abstraction, between statements and the events they represent, generalizations and the particular, etc., avoiding polarized (either-or) orientations, and emphasizing unity and relationships within wholes.