Customer Reviews

Tyranny Of Words

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The book is dated but fascinating. It introduces the notion that much of what we argue about is really not an argument about facts but one about definitions. It is fascinating also to note the players in the 1930s and to see what their predictions became. A wonderful introduction to semantics with the caution that if you let an enemy select the terms of the argument, he has already won it.

Language or Words (if you will) may be the most significant distinction that the human species has. It has provided man with a creative medium almost beyond compare and at the same time in our innocence we have allowed our selves to assign words an importance or value that has become destructive, misleading, perverted, etc. This book could get you on the road to recovery. Mr. Chase is not nearly as philosophical about these issues as I tend to be but it may be to his credit. I loved the book anyhow...give it a try it may change how you think and speak.

Still a useful book after all these years. It was first published in 1938. The author is strong on scientific method and objectivity. But on page 168 of the edition I have, he tells us that "Simile, metaphor and poetry are legitimate and useful methods of communication, provided speaker and hearer are conscious that they are being employed."
All kinds of things can be done with words and it is the author's wish that they be used for the good of the individual and the good of society. But people still continue to differ on the meaning of the word "good."

. This book largely follows Korzybsky's work on General Semantics, the science of determining what we really mean when we say something. Read Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (International Non-Aristotelian Library) to find out what's going on.
. Or you could check out a good popularization, Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics. Third Edition.
. Back in the 1940s, everybody was denying the very logic of this idea. In the late 1940s, it was obvious, and everybody claimed to have invented it themselves. In the 1960s and later, the basis of this field got watered down to 'just semantics' and got ignored.
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. This book documents a writer's search for meaning and how to clearly express it.
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. While there are a few people still working in this field, most philosophers are off building ever more elaborate castles in the air - not even realizing that the basis of much of their work is due to Korzybsky.

I received the book quickly and it was in brand-new condition.