Manhood of Humanity (2nd) (Hardcover)

~ Alfred Korzybski (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

a selection from Chapter I:
Introduction. Method and Processes of Approach to a New Concept of Life

-For a while he trampled with impunity on laws human and divine but, as he was obsessed with the delusion that two and two makes five, he fell, at last a victim to the relentless rules of humble Arithmetic.
-Remember, O stranger, Arithmetic is the first of the sciences and the mother of safety.-
--Brandeis

It is the aim of this little book to point the way to a new science and art-the science and art of Human Engineering. By Human Engineering I mean the science and art of directing the energies and capacities of human beings to the advancement of human weal. It need not be argued in these times that the establishment of such a science-the science of human welfare-is an undertaking of immeasurable importance. No one can fail to see that its importance is supreme.

It is evident that, if such a science is to be established it must be founded on ascertained facts-it must accord with what is characteristic of Man-it must be based upon a just conception of what Man is-upon a right understanding of Man's place in the scheme of Nature.

No one need be told how indispensable it is to have true ideas-just concepts-correct notions-of the things with which we humans have to deal; everyone knows for example, that to mistake solids for surfaces or lines would wreck the science and art of geometry; anyone knows that to confuse fractions with whole numbers would wreck the science and art of arithmetic; everyone knows that to mistake vice for virtue would destroy the foundation of ethics; everyone knows that to mistake a desert mirage for a lake of fresh water does but lure the fainting traveler to dire disappointment or death. Now, it is perfectly clear that of all the things with which human beings have to deal, the most important by far is Man himself-humankind-men, women and children. It follows that for us human beings nothing else can be quite so important as a clear, true, just, scientific concept of Man-a right understanding of what we as human beings really are. For it requires no great wisdom, it needs only a little reflection, to see that, if we humans radically misconceive the nature of man-if we regard man as being something which he is not, whether it be something higher than man or lower-we thereby commit an error so fundamental and far reaching as to produce every manner of confusion and disaster in individual life, in community life and in the life of the race.

The question we have, therefore, to consider first of all is fundamentally: What is Man? What is a man? What is a human being? What is the defining or characteristic mark of humanity?

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Institute of General Semantics; 2 edition (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 093729800X
• ISBN-13: 978-0937298008
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,376,363 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We humans are Time-Binders., September 28, 1999

By	Timothy Wilken (Carmel, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In 1921, Alfred Korzybski, a mathematician and scientist, classified Life with precise and accurate operational definitions of plants, animals, and humans. He defined the plants as energy-binders, the animals as space-binders, and we humans as time-binders. Korzybski explained that:

The plants adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of energy. The animals adapt to their environment through their awareness and control of space. And we humans adapt to our environment through our awareness and control of time.

Plants are energy-binders. The power of energy-binding is transformation, growth, and organization.

Energy-binders have the ability to transform solar energy to organic chemical energy. The plant is a solar collector. It spreads its leaves and harvests the ultraviolet rays directly from the sun.

Energy-binders have the power of growth.The plant draws water and minerals from the soil organizes this energy and nutrients into growth through cell division. The growth of the energy-binder and its self-propagation through progeny are the resultant of cell division - if the cells remain together we have growth; if they split off into a separate entity we have progeny. Energy-bindings have the power of organization. Organization possible through the ability to time the release and binding of energy. Timing based on knowledge - energy knowledge.

Animals are space-binders. The power of space-binding is mobility - the ability to move about in space. This is not the simple motion of plants. This is mobility - running, jumping, leaping, swinging, swimming, creeping, stalking, crawling, diving, and flying.

The space-binder moves towards a specific and attainable goal - water, food, a mate, shelter - and in any direction. The mobility of the space-binder is not just motion, it is controlled motion. The space-binder moves in search of food. For grazing animals the quest is continuous; for predators, occasional but more strenuous. And all animals are under constant threat from natural enemies. The animal, therefore, requires sense awareness - awareness of the space in which he lives.

We humans are Time-binders. We possess the power to understand and through that understanding to control and dominate planet Earth.

The power of Time-binding is to understand - to observe and remember change over time. Understanding comes from the awareness of time - an awareness that allows humans to experience time as sequential or linear.

Tomorrow follows today as today followed yesterday. Time always moves from the past to the present, from the present to the future. Change is bound in time. And time-binders understand change in space because they are aware of time.

When humans understand change they can understand cause and effect, they make scientific discovery. They make knowledge. When humans make choices based on knowledge, they make inventions. They make technology. Time-binders are the creators of knowledge and technology. When knowledge is incorporated into matter-energy, it becomes a tool. Humans are above all else toolmakers.

Time-binding is embedded in just about every thing associated with humans and yet most humans are unaware of the very power that makes them human. We humans catalogue and store our various knowings in libraries, universities, colleges, data banks, and information services. We are time-binders and the mark of human power is everywhere.

This was Korzybski's gift to humanity. An understanding of Life, and a definition of the form called human.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Co-operative Self-Actualization Via Time-Binding., June 28, 2003

By	Paul Sidle (Doncaster, South Yorkshire UK.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In "Manhood Of Humanity" a vision of our future begins, fired in the trenches of World War I. Here in print Korzybski begins the task of solving the problems of the world, each page radiating optimistic humanity.
The problem comes down to whether human 'nature' can change, involving an accepted definition that 'man is an animal'. Indeed our political-social institutions, etc., operate with an animalistic, ruthless tooth-and-claw "survival of the fittest" as the 'strongest'. Despite that Charles Darwin(1859) in his "survival of the fittest" meant a survival of the best adapted, not 'strongest'. Therefore Korzybski decided that a functional re-definition became necessary, in order to better differentiate the evolutionary development. Where plants have an equivalence to Chemical-binders: capacity to convert energy(for example, photosynthesis) into growth, etc. Next that animals have an equivalence to Space-binders: capacity to move to find food. While humans have an equivalence to Time-binders: capacity to improve on the accumulated abstractions of others then transmitting it for future generations. From which has developed Philosophy, Sciences, Engineering, our libraries, etc.
This led as a result to new explanations involving predictions upon old problems, ultimately having surprising consequences. For example, why do revolutions along with wars happen? Well because Science, Engineering, etc., as a time-binding process progresses geometrically, whilst our moral, social 'opinions'('prejudices'), etc., progresses arithmetically, non-empirically. For example, on many occasions people in discussion groups have protested against technological progress, yet it is not the technology that becomes the problem but their uses due to mis-evaluations. Further that our values for power(charisma as in leadership or-both exchange as in wealth), status(esteem), life-style, etc., remains based on a duplicity which involves the subjugation of the living by prostituting the time-binding knowledge created by the dead.
Instead Korzybski advocates co-operation in place of 'competition'; whilst self-improvement in place of 'greed', 'territorialism', 'capitalism', etc.
Thus Korzybski argues that humans are not by 'nature''fixed innate', but changeable through nurture; however to discover how this becomes possible, further why we 'copy animals in our nervous reactions'(the consequences)- required further research, culminating in "Science And Sanity".

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for future or new parents, August 6, 1999

By A Customer

This book explains why we (humans) see so many things being done by our religious and political leaders that do not make sense. We are not the ones that are ignorant, just gullible.