The Book of Radical General Semantics


Edited by Gad Horowitz and Shannon Bell

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The Book of Radical General Semantics,arranged into seven Parts, begins with a new look at the motor of Korzybski's general semantics-the Structural Differential. Part II introduces Silent Practice-attention to sensory experience-as integral to saner evaluative processes. Silent Practice precedes The Devices of General Semantics (Part III) as it is a skill that facilitates that "fraction of a second psycho-logical delay" intended by the devices. In Part IV, The "Self" and Free Will, the Structural Differential is turned inward to provide a multi-levelled map of one's very own self in which oneself is three: event-self, object-self, label-self. In Part V, Politics, the devices and formulations of general semantics are applied to such diverse issues as President Obama's 'You Didn't Build That' speech, the ultra-left 'Tiqqun' group, and the Canadian monarchy. The Meta Model purposely comes late (Part VI) in the book. Here Gad returns the Meta Model developed as a practice within Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) to its origin in General Semantics. Part VII. Participation: Myth Art Religion brings together a number of resonances of radical general semantics with studies of music, photography, phenomenology, filming theoretical concepts, writing, myth and religion. While most of the writing is by Gad Horowitz, Colin Campbell has contributed a number of very rich chapters especially in Part VII.


Gad Horowitz is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Toronto, Canada. He has specialized and published in the fields of political philosophy, Canadian politics and psychoanalytic theory. He taught General Semantics at the University of Toronto from 1985 to 2013. His course is available in video format at https://vimeo.com/channels/423528. In November 2013 he served as resource person for the VII National General Semantics Workshop at Saurashtra University, Rajkot, India.

Shannon Bell is a Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto,Canada (http://www.yorku.ca/shanbell). Her books include: Fast Feminism (2010); Reading, Writing and Rewriting the Prostitute Body (1994); Bad Attitude/s on Trial, co-authored (1997); Subversive Itinerary: The Thought of Gad Horowitz, co-edited (2013) and New Socialisms, co-edited (2004). Bell is currently working on shooting theory-video-imaging philosophical concepts such as Heidegger's 'stillness', Husserl's 'epoché', Bataillian 'waste' and 'expenditure', Weil's 'attention', Deleuzian 'deterritorialization', Virilio's 'vision machine' and 'accident', Levinas' 'elemental' and Mallin's 'sinuosity'.

 

Writings and Comments by
:
Marcia Lenglet, Dwayne Poloway, Bruce Kodish, Jennifer Palin, Bal Simon, Devkumar Trivedi, Justinas Beinorius, Shannon Bell, Gad Horowitz, Colin Campbell
 
ISBN 978-93-82178-16-3             2016      264 pages      Rs. 700 (hb)