The map is not the territory.
– Alfred Korzybski, 1931
Semantic scientist and philosopher Korzybski coined this term to distinguish our beliefs from reality. The concept is helpful in understanding how misunderstandings happen.
> What we perceive as the territory, the map, is not the territory.
> However, we often confuse the two as: the map is the territory.
> As the map is what we individually perceive as the territory, your map is different from my map.
> Yet again, because we confuse the map as the territory, we further confuse that your map is same as my map.
This is how misunderstandings are created.
Reality is reality. However, we can only communicate with each other through our interpretations of reality. Develop this consciousness, and we can be more prudent in understanding each other.
#epistemology
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