Module 1 Optional Activities

Optional Activities

Depending on your interests and curiosities, you may find some of these additional readings, videos, and activities worth investigating.

NOTE: Following the links on this page will take you out of the Module 1 sequence. To return to this page, follow the link at the bottom of each of the linked pages.

Media

• Irving J. Lee video on Facts vs. Inferences — This 27-minute lecture is one of six episodes of "Talking Sense," a series presented by Northwestern University professor Irving J. Lee in 1952 on Chicago television.
• Fall 2006 Semester Review — A 25-minute Powerpoint presentation by Steve Stockdale to review the Fall 2006 General Semantics course at Texas Christian University (TCU) in Fort Worth, Texas. The video summary, in three parts, was necessary after the final class of the semester was canceled due to inclement weather.
• A General Semantics Perspective — A 9-minute narrated Powerpoint presentation by Steve Stockdale excerpted from the 50-minute presentation, Lay Off My Persuade Shoes Links to an external site., to the American Advertising Federation chapter in Amarillo, Texas, in 2009. Includes video and script.
• Historical Note on the Structural Differential — A mash-up by Steve Stockdale that adds images to audio excerpts from Alfred Korzybski's recorded explanation of how he was inspired to create the structural differential as a means to visually represent the abstracting process.
• Do Word Actually Possess Power? — Four short video clips that illustrate different considerations of the question.
• The Tyranny of Categories — A light-hearted mash-up by Steve Stockdale at the expense of the Weather Channel's broadcast coverage of Hurricane Ike in 2008. What's the real difference between a Category 2 and Category 3 hurricane?

Readings

• Chapter 1: General Semantics, from Awareness and Action (page) — The opening chapter from Mary Lahman's textbook provides a different overview of GS.
• Chapter 2: Abstraction, from Awareness and Action (page) — The second chapter from Mary Lahman's textbook with a different approach to describing the abstracting process.
• ETC: Across the Curriculum Download ETC: Across the Curriculum
  (PDF download, 1.3mb) — A PDF download of the 2004 special issue of ETC: A Review of General Semantics with 40 articles from the archives that cover the breadth of GS applications Across the Curriculum. Available courtesy of the Institute of General Semantics Links to an external site..
• ETC: General Semantics in India Download ETC: General Semantics in India
  (PDF download, 11 mb) — A PDF download of the 2008 special issue of ETC: A Review of General Semantics devoted to GS in India following the 2007 visit of Andrea Johnson and Steve Stockdale. Available courtesy of the Institute of General Semantics Links to an external site..
• The Role of Language in the Perceptual Processes Download The Role of Language in the Perceptual Processes
  (page) — Korzybski's last paper, written in 1949/50. He died on March 1, 1950, as he was finalizing the paper for presentation at Robert Blake's Clinical Psychology Symposium on Perception at the University of Texas. The paper was later published in Perception: An Approach to Personality, in 1951. This version was edited by Steve Stockdale for viewing on a web page. Available courtesy of the Institute of General Semantics Links to an external site..

Other

• Uncritical Inference Tests — Two simple scenario-based tests that illustrate how much we read into situations with our own inferencing.

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