General Semantics.

ing (selecting) processes were discussed, and certain conclusions generally agreed, e . g . : To an animal his objective world 'is his all' he does not know that he selects he behaves as if Event and Object were identical for him this evaluation is adequate for survival his make-up is suited to this . Man can be aware that he selects human behaviour is such that E & 0 are not treated as identical man uses symbols to represent E & 0, etc . Consequences likely to result from identifying and confusing orders were illustrated by numerous examples . Projection and to-me-ness also came into this meeting's discussions . As a brief 'digression' it was discussed among members that human hunger for the static (something that does not change in a changing world) appears natural to man, and may be considered as a basic human urge ; and that many 'religions' might well be considered as expressions of this urge and attempts to satisfy a natural human hunger . It was pointed out that man appears to be endowed with the necessary mechanism or means to achieve satisfaction, and, provided man fulfills his human destiny, he will find satisfaction for this hunger but not if he 'walks the pre-scientific path through confusion to perdition . ' For homework a sheet of paper was handed to each member with the following written thereon : At our next meeting we shall consider differences between sense and nonsense . Can you recognize nonsense when you come across it? Please deal with these 'questions' in writing, as briefly as you can and NOTE CAREFULLY HOW LONG YOU SPEND ON EACH . 1. What is the secret of success? 2. Can religion conquer communism? 3. Will Christianity survive? 4 . If the temperature of some water is 60 degrees Fahr . what is the temperature of the atoms of hydrogen and oxygen which go to make up that water? 5 . If the 3.24 from Victoria was two minutes late on Friday what is the point duty policeman's name? 6 . Should the death sentence be abolished? 7 . How long is a piece of string? 8. Can you think of any circumstances in which this recorded extract from a conversation might make sense? 'Then a screw nicks my snout and puts me in peter . ' IV . It was felt as gratifying to the group leader to find that most of the members had treated nearly all the 'questions' as nonsense . Some had given a 'Roland for an Oliver' by making blatant nonsense remarks ; others had written remarks such as, 'I cannot answer the question until I know what you mean by . ' A few, however, treated 'questions' 1,2,3, 6, as sense . With two exceptions the members labelled 8 as 'possibly underworld, spiv, or prison slang' . The leader interpreted the conversation extract thus 'Then a prison warder confiscated my tobacco and locked me in my cell . ' Numbers 18 & 19, 1955-56 The relaxing effect of answered questions was contrasted with the continued states of tension arising from unanswered and unanswerable questions . An apple was passed around for the members to handle, smell, look at, feel. The apple was then placed in the centre of a diagram, adapted from O . R . Bontrager's diagram on page 5, G S BULLETIN 4 & 5 . The apple was labelled Apple, . The process of abstracting in higher orders was illustrated . For homework the members were asked to devise a diagram in a similar manner STARTING WITH AN ACTUAL OBJECT to place in the centre . It was intimated that at the next meeting we would continue our consideration of nonsense . This meeting was rounded off with the following reading from Shakespeare : (Macbeth, Act III, Sc . 1) First Murderer : We are men, my liege . Macbeth : Aye, in the catalogue ye go for men; as hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, shoughs, water-rugs, and demiwolves, are slept all by the name of dogs : the valu'd file distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle, the housekeeper, the hunter, everyone according to the gift which bounteous nature hath in him clos'd ; whereby he does receive particular addition, from the bill that writes them all alike ; and so of men . V . At the fifth meeting, some diagrams were produced 'that appeared so excellent to the leader that they will be used at other courses in the place of his own crude drawings . With a general show of enthusiasm, we passed on to the main topic for this meeting, 'more nonsense' . The Plogglies story was read from Wendell Johnson's People in quandaries, and a brief resume given of the Brownian movement, also based on Wendell Johnson, pages 76, 71-72 . After this, a home-made model of the apparatus illustrated and described on page 73, G S BULLETIN 12 & 13, was demonstrated . _ 7