Facts
93
A fact does not exist if it has not been articulated, that is, if it does not
exist explicitly as a verbal entity sufficiently detailed that it can be made to
correspond (approximately) to something in the external world. Facts don’t
exist in the absence of their statement (because a statement cuts the fact out
of the background), and the statement cannot exist apart from an agent with
a purpose. When an intentional agent sets out to carve a specific object from
the background world, he has a Gestalt concept of the object—and from the
latter, he acts to carve the object out. Thus, a fact cannot exist in a universe
without living observers.
A fact does not hold in the universe if it has not been explicitly formulated.
That should be obvious, because a fact is specific. In other words, statementsof-fact are produced by living observers, and thereby come into existence as
a result of being constructed. It is only after they have been constructed (in
words or symbols) that facts come to exist. Commonsense wisdom holds the
opposite view: It holds that facts exist in the universe regardless of whether
anyone notices them, and irrespective of whether they have been articulated
in words. You may now judge for yourself if that is true.
The Map and the Territory
Alfred Korzybski was a Polish nobleman of the last century. An engineer by
profession and a philosopher by preference, he is remembered largely for his
clever aphorisms which open the door to deep and difficult questions. One
of his best-known sayings is the map is not the territory. Like the pronouncements of the ancient sibyls, his aphorisms are ambiguous, and each of their
interpretations is a topic worth pursuing. In the present context, the territory
is a metaphor for the physical world, and the map is the way that we represent
it in our minds. 3
The territory is the flow of ongoing process in the physical universe—what
we described as a seething cauldron of cosmic activity. The physical basis for
every fact is deeply embedded in this maelstrom, and must be painstakingly
and precisely cut out by a living mind. The map is the set of all the statementsof-fact which interpret the map in terms that have meaning for us. Korzybski’s
maxim warns us not to confuse a fact that is clearly expressed in words with
the underlying physical reality which has no structure until we organize it.
It was seen in the last chapter that the form of a material object is not
indwelling in its matter, because the form appears only to a Gestalt perceiver.
Thus, form and matter are separated, with matter located in the object but
form located in the observer. It is the same with a fact: The material basis for
93
A fact does not exist if it has not been articulated, that is, if it does not
exist explicitly as a verbal entity sufficiently detailed that it can be made to
correspond (approximately) to something in the external world. Facts don’t
exist in the absence of their statement (because a statement cuts the fact out
of the background), and the statement cannot exist apart from an agent with
a purpose. When an intentional agent sets out to carve a specific object from
the background world, he has a Gestalt concept of the object—and from the
latter, he acts to carve the object out. Thus, a fact cannot exist in a universe
without living observers.
A fact does not hold in the universe if it has not been explicitly formulated.
That should be obvious, because a fact is specific. In other words, statementsof-fact are produced by living observers, and thereby come into existence as
a result of being constructed. It is only after they have been constructed (in
words or symbols) that facts come to exist. Commonsense wisdom holds the
opposite view: It holds that facts exist in the universe regardless of whether
anyone notices them, and irrespective of whether they have been articulated
in words. You may now judge for yourself if that is true.
The Map and the Territory
Alfred Korzybski was a Polish nobleman of the last century. An engineer by
profession and a philosopher by preference, he is remembered largely for his
clever aphorisms which open the door to deep and difficult questions. One
of his best-known sayings is the map is not the territory. Like the pronouncements of the ancient sibyls, his aphorisms are ambiguous, and each of their
interpretations is a topic worth pursuing. In the present context, the territory
is a metaphor for the physical world, and the map is the way that we represent
it in our minds. 3
The territory is the flow of ongoing process in the physical universe—what
we described as a seething cauldron of cosmic activity. The physical basis for
every fact is deeply embedded in this maelstrom, and must be painstakingly
and precisely cut out by a living mind. The map is the set of all the statementsof-fact which interpret the map in terms that have meaning for us. Korzybski’s
maxim warns us not to confuse a fact that is clearly expressed in words with
the underlying physical reality which has no structure until we organize it.
It was seen in the last chapter that the form of a material object is not
indwelling in its matter, because the form appears only to a Gestalt perceiver.
Thus, form and matter are separated, with matter located in the object but
form located in the observer. It is the same with a fact: The material basis for