by Jim Walker
... The originator of general semantics, Alfred
Korzybski came up with the phrase,
"A map is not the
territory" meaning that a map can describe a territory in
some similar structure that allows us to traverse the land, which
gives us a useful tool, but that our perception of the map can
never equal the territory, but only our version of it, our map.
All symbolism acts in this manner. All information comes to us
as second hand. Everything we perceive from the outside world
comes delayed, even if by only a few milliseconds, and processed
by our brains into linguistic symbols.
We may live in the present,
but our thoughts reflect the past. We only have maps to refer
to and nothing else. So the determination of what terrains our
maps reflect to can present difficulties since any information,
even if imagined or dreamt, can seem just as real to us as those
that come from the outside world.
For example, you can create a mental symbol to represent a
cat. If your cat walks into view, you can think about it with
your internal language. (If you don't have a cat, then get one.
Everyone should live with a cat,
and will make the following easier to understand.)
This internal
representation of your cat also allows you to remember and think
about it even when your cat has walked away. Marvelously, the
storage system of your brain allows the idea of the cat to outlive
the cat itself. With the unfortunate eventual death of your cat,
you will still have the capacity to remember for the simple reason
that your brain continues to hold the symbols of your cat in
the matrix of your neurons. In this sense, the cat appears to
exist, but only as a set of symbols.
But in another capacity,
our brains can also attach emotions
to the symbols themselves. Remembering your cat at different
times in your past can evoke different emotions depending on
how you felt the first time you remembered them. So not only
do your cat symbols exist, but an emotional trigger follows them
as well even after the death of your pet. These cat thoughts
and feelings seem identical to the thoughts you had of your cat
while it lived. In this sense,
it feels as if your cat
still exists.
And if you mistake the symbols for the thing, you
can develop an error of believing in essences, spooks and all
sorts of afterlifes...