Developing Sanity in Human Affairs

by Robert P. Holston, Susan Kodish

Overview

How can humans learn to function most effectively in their individual and social lives and best approach important ethical and social concerns? Developing Sanity in Human Affairs answers this question through application of general semantics to the fields of education, counseling, communication, critical thinking, jourbanalism, and ethics.

General semantics, developed by Alfred Korzybski, is concerned with how humans can learn to evaluate and act more responsibly in conducting their individual and social lives. The chapters in this collection deal with these issues in education and counseling, social and cultural areas, critical thinking, communications, humanism, and ethics. Highlights include the Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture, which bridges past and present work in general semantics and applications to important current problems in media and other areas of communication. Traditional and revisionist perspectives on foundations in general semantics are presented, as are dialogues on critical thinking and general semantics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313306136
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/30/1998
Series:	Contributions to the Study of Mass Media and Communications , #54
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.12(d)
Lexile:	1350L (what's this?)

About the Author

SUSAN PRESBY KODISH, a psychologist in private practice in Baltimore, serves as Education Director of the Institute of General Semantics and Senior Editor of the General Semantics Bulletin.

ROBERT P. HOLSTON is Distinguished Professor of General Semantics and Director of the Hofstra Center for General Semantics and Critical Thinking.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Susan Presby Kodish
Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture
Overview by Susan Presby Kodish
General Semantics: The Next Generation by Nicholas Johnson
Critical Thinking
Overview by Rachel Lauer
Thinking Critically about Sources of Information by Robert J. Swartz
Integrating Critical Thinking and General Semantics: An Interactive Panel
Foundations
Overview by Stuart A. Mayper
Living in an "as if" World: Some Reflections on "The Map Is Not the Territory" by Charlotte Schuchardt Read
The Most "Consequential" Elementalism by Edward MacNeal
General Semantics and Fuzzy Logic/Sets: Similarities and Differences by Robert P. Pula
How General Semantics Can Rescue Biology from Itself: A Biology with Biologists in It by C. Andrew Hilgartner
General-Semantics: A Critical and Meta-Critical System by Milton Dawes
Undecidability in Quantum Physics, Chaos Theory, and Deconstruction: Implications for Politics, Ethics, and Society by Roben Torosyan
EEOS: A Fourth Non-Aristotelian Model by D. David Bourland, Jr.
Social/Cultural Issues
Overview by Milton Dawes
A General Semantics Approach to Appreciating Cultural Diversity by Gregg Hoffmann
A North-South Bridge of General Semantics: The Cross-Cultural Approach in an International and a National Environment by Laura Bertone
How General Semantics Contributes to the Understanding of Violence by Rachel Lauer
Breaking the Taboo: A Critical Look at Barriers to Thought and Discussion of Assisted Suicide for the Terminally Ill by Lee Mazmanian
Healing Medicine with Language by Joseph F. Fennelly
The Importance of Story-Telling to Time-Binding: Crucial Issues for General Semantics to Address by Martha A. Bartter, C. Andrew Hilgartner, and Martin L. Stoneman
Problem Solving with General Semantics by David Hewson
Education/Counseling
Overview by Martin H. Levinson
A General Semantics Approach to Clinical Supervision with Drug Prevention Counselors by Martin H. Levinson
The Irving J. Lee Method of Teaching General Semantics by Sanford I. Berman
"Got-to-Be, Got-to-Be, Dom-in-o's!": The Semantics of Student Responses to TV Commercials by Roy F. Fox
An Integrated Model of Alfred Korzybski's General Semantics, Bandler/Grinder's Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Ellis's Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and Glasser's Reality Therapy/Control Theory by Michael Hall
Professor A and Professor B: Illustrating Concepts in the General Semantics Course by Charles B. Dodson
Dream Education and General Semantics by Allen Flagg
General Semantics and Zen: Complementary Guides for Sane Living by S. W. Holmes
Communication
Overview by Gregg Hoffmann
Using General Semantics as the Theoretical Foundation for Teaching Media Literacy by Terese Brecklin and Gregg Hoffmann
Caveat Lector: "Let the Reader Beware" A General Semantic View of the Potential for Misevaluation in Medical Research Communication by Norman S. Blackman
General Semantics and Translation Theory by Alexandra Chciuk-Celt
Do You See What I See? by David Scott Goen
General Semantics and the Ethics Agenda: New Challenges for the News Media by Jay Black
Labor and Contentionally Related Lexical Items in Communist Newspeak: Cases of Soviet Russia and Socialist Germany by Galik I. Artemchuk and George G. Pocheptsov
Humanism/Ethics
Overview by Susan Presby Kodish
Putting Up Lightning Rods: General-Semantics and Secular Humanism by Susan Presby Kodish and Bruce I. Kodish
General Semantics and Secular Humanism by Timothy J. Madigan
The Ethics of Secular Humanism by Stuart D. Jordon
Evaluating Abortion: A General-Semantics Analysis by Bruce I. Kodish
Can We Develop a Worldwide Extensional Ethic? by Kenneth L. Baldwin
Index

Editorial Reviews

Papers from the Eleventh International Interdisciplinary Conference on General Semantics are categorized in sections on foundations, education and counseling, social and cultural issues, communication, and humanism and ethics. Each section is prefaced with an overview introducing and summarizing each paper. Topics include the semantics of student responses to TV commercials, barriers to thought and discussion of assisted suicide, and using general semantics as the theoretical foundation for teaching media literacy. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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