The Map Is Not the Territory (Institute of General Semantics, quoting Korzybski, 1933, and Bateson, 1970)

Gregory Bateson, Alfred Korzybski · c. 1933

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Gregory Bateson, Alfred Korzybski did not write this page.

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Our reading
The territory never gets onto the map: representation always filters it out, so the mental world is only maps of maps.
Mental modelThe map is not the territory

Their wordsThe territory never gets in at all. Always the process of representation will filter it out so that the mental world is only maps of maps of maps, ad infinitum.
Our reading
A map is not the territory it represents, but if it is correct it shares the territory's structure, which is what makes it useful.
Mental modelThe map is not the territory

Their wordsA map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
Our reading
Languages are at best maps: a word is not the object it represents.
Mental modelThe map is not the territory

Their wordsIf we reflect upon our languages, we find that at best they must be considered only as maps. A word is not the object it represents

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