SOME FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON THE NON-VERBAL LEVEL

Transcription

1 SOME FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON THE NON-VERBAL LEVEL A GREAT MANY words have been wrien on he subjec of 'beauy,' many very beauiful and many very wise. They explain quie clearly why cerain hings, or classes of hings, are considered beauiful, experly sum up he sandards of beauy and depic, mos movingly, he feelings ha beauiful hings arouse in us. Despie all hese effors, neiher he basic, funcional srucure of his 'qualiy' nor he explanaion for is elusiveness and ephemeral characer have as ye been clearly presened. And I believe hese failures can be shown o be due o elemenalisic reasoning involving confusion of orders of absracion, idenificaion and objecificaion. I have referred o beauy as a 'qualiy' and I wish i undersood ha I use his erm in he modern, non-arisoelian sense. A qualiy, as Korzybski pus i, is he reacion of an organism o a simulus. I is no a somehing in he simulus ; i is a cooperaive, inseparable affair beween he simulus and he reacing organism, and wihou he reacing organism here is no `qualiy' exisen by iself in he simulus. For example, he ligh waves from an objec srike my eye and produce in me he sensaion 'red.' My nervous sysem hen projecs his sensaion so ha I see he * Mr. Weinberg of Philadelphia is a chemis, employed in research on plasics. The presen aricle was wrien during a hireen-monh voyage in he Souh Pacific aboard an ammuniion ship HARRY WEINBERG* objec as 'red' and do no recognize his redness as a sensaion wihin myself. In he same manner we feel he pain in a cu finger as being 'in' he finger when i is really 'in' he brain. A vivid- example of his projecive mechanism is afforded by he case of a person who, having recenly suffered he loss of his leg, feels pain in his oes unil he re-educaes his nervous sysem o he realizaion ha he leg is gone and ha he pain can no be in i. Color, shape, ase, smell, one, pich, smoohness, emperaure-all hese are 'qualiies.' So is 'beauy.' Bu, somehow, beauy seems o be a differen sor of qualiy. I seems less 'concree,' i is more elusive and myserious, and less definable han hese ohers and we canno agree on our sandards of beauy as we can on hose of he ohers. Wherein lies he difference? This is he very crux of he 'beauy problem.' To answer his le us follow he reacions of an organism-a man, o a simulus-a paining. His firs conac wih he picure is hrough his senses. These sensaions he projecs back o he paining and he sees hem as being 'in' he picure. A he same ime hese sensaions give rise o feelings in him which can be classified as being pleasan or unpleasan o various degrees. The srucure and educaion of his body and his psycho-physiological sae of he momen deermine which evaluaion is obained. He noes he colors, heir hues, he way hey are combined. He finds hem

2 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON NON-VERBAL LEVEL very pleasan. He noes he forms and shapes, he sweep of line, he balance of masses and areas, and hese oo he finds pleasan. These sensaions please him because i is par of he very naure of man o be favorably affeced by hem. We are living, moving masses of rhyhmically pulsaing cells and organs. We breahe rhyhmically, our hears bea rhyhmically, our inesines conrac rhyhmically, he very prooplasm in our cells is moving and sreaming a speeds regulaed by our body emperaures, glandular secreions, ec. Every muscle is a cener of balance, pulling and adjusing, conracing and relaxing, measuring weigh and ensions. Rhyhm, he sweep of lines, he balancing of masses are as naural o us as breahing. They are he suff of life iself. Our criic noes he subjec maer and finds i unpleasan. He noes he relaionship beween forms, he perspecive, ec., ec., and compares hese wih oher works of ar. He is now on a very high level of absracion. Neverheless, hese are ranslaed back o low-order absracions, namely, 'feelings.' These feelings are pleasan or unpleasan o various degrees depending, again, on his educaion, his mood of he momen, he value he pus upon various characerisics, he degree o which some of his wans and desires are saisfied by characerisics of he picure. From his mass of pleasan and unpleasan feelings our criic absracs again o form a feeling ha can be bes described as he feeling of he pleasanness or unpleasanness of he picure as a whole. I is a his poin ha our mysic +ualiy, 'beauy,' comes o life. He reasons, unconsciously, ha jus as he qualiy red in he picure gives rise o his feelings of pleasanness abou i, so mus here be some single 'qualiy' in he picure ha gives rise o his feeling of he pleasan ness of he whole of he picure. And his qualiy he calls 'beauy,' or 'preiness'-depending on he inensiy of his feelings. Naurally, his 'qualiy'-his aemped projecion of a feeling insead of a sensaion-canno possibly have he concreeness and definieness ha 'qualiies' such as form and color have. For hese laer are direc absracions from he ouside world, while beauy is an absracion from feelings wihin him. I is of a higher order of absracion and from his idenificaion and illegiimae union of wo differen levels of absracion has sprung a basard qualiy having he 'ouside us' feeling of oher qualiies wihou heir concreeness, and he indefinie formlessness of feelings wihou heir 'inside us' characerisic. Man has searched for ages for his disembodied ghos, of hings and i is ime we laid he ghos o res. The quesion of he difference beween 'preiness' and 'beauy' sill remains, and in order o clear his up le us once more examine he absracing processes involved. Closer examinaion of :his feeling of he pleasanness of he whole of he simulus will show ha i is a sor of menal adding up or comparison of he inensiies of our individual feelings abou individual characerisics of he simulus. This 'sum' akes he 'sign' of he one mos inense feeling. If our mos inense feeling resuling from he evaluaion, of one, of he characerisics ('qualiies') of he simulus is pleasan-posiive-hen we will find he whole simulus pleasan regardless of he number of negaiveunpleasan-feelings of lesser inensiy ha he oher characerisics have aroused in us. If a negaive feeling abou one of he characerisics has been, he mos inense, hen we find he whole simulus unpleasan and, consequenly, unprey or ugly. The inensiy of our feeling abou he whole simulus is direcly proporional

3 ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS o he difference in he relaive inensiy of he one mos inense posiive and one mos inense negaive feeling. I is similar o he algebraic addiion of numbers. I very ofen happens ha we evaluae single characerisics or pars of he simulus as prey, as when we say of a woman ha she has prey hair. On firs hough whole, bu we sill remember he characerisics ha we found unpleasan, and hey serve o emper our emoion abou he whole in proporion o heir inensiy. Even hough i is he difference in relaive inensiy beween he one mos inense posiive and negaive feelings ha deermines he inensiy and sign of our Relaive inensiy of mos inense posiive feeling Relaive inensiy of mos inense negaive feeling = = = -8 Resulan feeling Inense pleasanness of whole-very prey Low degree of pleasanness of whole-fair, nice Inense unpleasanness of whole-very unprey i migh appear ha his upses our definiion of preiness as being he resulan of he feeling of he pleasanness of he whole of he simulus. However, if we examine he case more closely we will find ha here is no discrepancy. For in evaluaing he hair as prey, he hair for he momen becomes he whole of he simulus and he res of he woman is forgoen. When he inensiy of he pleasanness of he characerisic which deermines he sign of our feeling for he whole simulus is grea enough, our feeling of he pleasanness of he whole becomes so grea i burss is bounds, so o speak, and ses off a flood of oher powerful feelings. We are hrilled, we laugh, we cry, we are speechless, we are overcome wih emoion. When hese inense feelings are produced, hen we say he simulus is beauiful and no merely prey. Mos imporan, semanically, are he evaluaive feelings of 'allness' and 'posiiveness' which hereby become associaed wih beauy. When we say somehing is 'prey,' we are making a saemen abou he feeling abou he whole, hese oher feelings are sill remembered (we are conscious of he characerisics lef ou) and will play an imporan par in regulaing our acions based on our evaluaion of he simulus. Wih 'beauy,' all hese negaive characerisics are forgoen or disregarded. The simulus appears 'all beauiful,' 'wihou a doub.' We know 'posiively' ha i is beauiful, no one can ell us oherwise, and only a very powerful emoional shock can make us change our minds. Beauy is 'all,' 'eernal,' 'everlasing.' Since beauy resuls from an evaluaion of he srucure of he simulus, a few words abou our srucural sense will no be amiss. Our sense of srucure is a direc resul of our abiliy o absrac o indefiniely high levels, and, as will all senses, is graificaion gives us pleasure. Since srucure can be described in erms of' muli-dimensional order and relaions, we should expec o find ha an organism capable of high order absracions, and herefore able o evaluae order and relaions, should have an inheren liking

4 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON NON-VERBAL LEVEL for, and pleasure in, experiencing order from he simples o he mos complex. And such we find is he case wih man. A rusy ball by iself is no a very prey objec, bu arranging a number of hem o form a design, even a sraigh row of hem, causes us o find pleasure in he appearance of he whole. From his low srucural level of simple designs, simple unes, simple sories, we can proceed up he absracing scale o he appreciaion of he srucure of our mos complex painings, symphonies, novels, ec. This enjoymen of srucure, as such, is one of he reasons for our liking of puzzles, games like chess and, mos imporanly, he enjoymen and saisfacion he scienis ges from his heories and he mahemaician from his equaions. And in he ars, is no all criicism bu a discussion of srucure and all enjoymen of hem bu a direc resulan of heir srucure? As Korzybski said, 'All our knowings are srucural knowings.' And, inescapably, all our beauies are feelings abou hem. Diagram I is a summary of he absracing process involved in he evaluaion of 'beauy.' 1. A, B, C, D are characerisics of he simulus, e.g., a woman. 2. A1, A 2, A 3, A4 are characerisics of one of he characerisics A and serve o indicae ha we can ake one of he characerisics of a simulus and make ha one characerisic he whole simulus, e.g., he hair of a woman as opposed o he whole woman. 3. SA, SB, SC, SD and SA1 SA2, SA3, SA4 are he sensaions hese characerisics produce in us, e.g., color, ase, smell. 4. The doed arrows indicae ha we projec hese sensaions back o he simulus so ha we see he color 'in' he simulus, we hear he sound as coming from he simulus and no as being in side our heads. The projeced sensaions are he 'qualiies' QA, QB, Qc, QD and QA1, QA2, QA3' QA4. 5. UPA, UPB, P, PD and PA, UPA2, UPA3, UP A4 represen he pleasan and unpleasan 'feelings' abou hese sensaions. UP sands for unpleasan, P for pleasan. 6. PW and UP AW represen our summarizaion of hese 'feelings' o form a 'feeling' of he pleasanness and unpleasanness, respecively, of he whole simulus. 7. QX and QUXA represen he projeced characerisic-he 'qualiy X'-we assign o he simulus o accoun for he 'feelings' PW and UP AW. QX we call 'preiness' or 'beauy,' QUX A 'unpreiness' or 'ugliness' depending on he degree of inensiy of he feelings PW and UPAW. Noe ha QX and QUXA are projecions of feelings as compared wih he projecion of he sensaions and how much closer hese sensaions are o he simulus han are he feelings, accouning for he 'concreeness' of he projeced sensaions-'qualiies,' and he formlessness of he projeced feeling. 8. The broken line indicaes ha we feel his 'qualiy,' 'beauy,' as coming from he simulus, jus as we do wih 'qualiies' like colors and sounds. To complee he comparisons -'qualiies' like colors we feel as 'residing' in he simulus and give rise o sensaions wihin us. 'Qualiies' like 'beauy' we feel as 'residing' in he simulus and give rise o feelings wihin us. I should like o poin ou ha i is no he feeling of pleasanness of he whole PW ha is responsible for he qualiy 'beauy,' bu he projeced feeling PW which becomes, by virue of his projecion, anoher feeling describable as he 'feeling of beauy,' i.e., he feeling ha here is somehing 'ou here' in he sim-

5 ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS STIMULUS F. E I I ^ I I ~ i I ~ ~ I A ;-QA. AZ QA 2 A3QA3AA~ I f I SA, SA2 S A3 I A4 Q I PAS UPA2 UPA UPa, 3 E I I U PAW ~ c {DLwA w DIAGRAM 1 I Lw > 2 0 0

6 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON NON-VERBAL LEVEL ulus which causes he feeling of he pleasanness of he whole simulus. II There is anoher ype of evaluaion having he feelings of pleasanness and unpleasanness as is immediae simulus, and ha is he evaluaion of he relaionship beween he simulus and he effec i produces. I is an evaluaion of cause and effec, and he feelings resuling from his evaluaion we call 'like,' 'dislike,' 'love' and 'hae.' The simulus induces pleasan or unpleasan feelings in us and because i does so we like or dislike, love or hae i. I is a feeling direced oward he simulus and no projeced as is he case wih 'beauy.' A projeced sensaion or feeling gives he impression of somehing coming from he simulus o us, while a direced feeling gives us he impression of somehing in us going ou oward he simulus. The relaionship beween 'love' and 'beauy' is exremely close and in many cases he wo feelings are inseparable, for boh involve an evaluaion of he srucure of he simulus, he one, 'beauy,' being an evaluaion of srucure as such, and he oher, 'love,' an evaluaion of he effecs of his srucure. Consequenly, he absracing processes followed in he formaion of he feeling we call love are very similar o hose of beauy. The simulus produces pleasan and unpleasan feelings in us and from his group of feelings we absrac again o form he feeling of he pleasanness or unpleasanness of he whole. Now, insead of his giving rise o a feeling of somehing being in he simulus ha is causing his pleasan or unpleasan feeling abou he whole, i produces a feeling called 'like' or 'dislike,' 'love' or 'hae' of (direced oward) he simulus because i caused hese pleasan or unpleasan reacions Here again, he value we pu upon he differen characerisics of he simulus is a major facor in he deermining of he sign and inensiy of our feelings. This value, in urn, is deermined by he psycho-physiological sae of he momen and expressible in erms of wans and desires of various inensiies. And he saisfacion of hese leads o effecs we feel as pleasan o proporionae degrees of inensiy and his, in urn, o our feelings of like or love of he simulus because i eiher saisfied hese wans, which saisfacion gave rise o pleasan feelings, or produced sensaions in us which we evaluaed as pleasan. When he inensiy of our feeling of like becomes inense enough o pass he 'emoional hreshold,' hen, as wih our evaluaion of beauy, we are no longer conscious of absracing, we no longer remember he characerisics lef ou, i.e., hose of opposie sign. We are 'in love' wih he simulus-posiively,' 'wihou a doub' we love 'all' of i. This, hen, is he general srucure of our feelings of love and hae. If his seems like an over-simplificaion of a very complex and myserious process, I should like o poin ou ha he complexiy lies in he numbers and ypes of our desires, he degrees o which hey are saisfied and he means o which we rever o have hem saisfied. The mysery lies, as is he case in all myseries of his ype, in our confusion of orders of absracion, in objecificaion and idenificaion. For example, many of our wans and desires are saisfied (and exremely pleasan feelings produced) purely hrough low-order, nonverbal halamic communicaions, such as sigh, ouch, smell and sound (non-verbal sounds). Since hese feelings are produced enirely hrough non-verbal, low-order absracions, we can never ell why we like or dislike hem, for reasons are on

7 ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS -- Q A,'QA,Az-Q,, A3-q4, AZQAp 1 1 I5TI M U L U S I I I 8 -a-q6 C'Qc - a l SA S I i 5A 5A S 5A,, I PAS UPA4 UPAs UP A4 U PAW /1 PW - DIAGRAM

8 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON NON-VERBAL LEVEL he verbal level. Being unable, hen, o define our reasons, bu, being firmly convinced-hrough confusion of he verbal and he non-verbal levels of absracionha hey (and everyhing else) are definable in words, we conclude ha our inabiliy o do so is due o he fac ha hey are caused by some myserious, supernaural eniy or force called love which prevens our finding words o define hem. Bu he mos imporan reason for he sense of mysery associaed wih love is he fac ha, as wih beauy, we idenify differen levels of feelings. Love is a feeling abou feelings of pleasanness induced by he simulus and, herefore, 'feels' differen from hese lower-order feelings which, being closer o he level of sensaions, are simpler, and more easily associaed wih heir simuli and, consequenly, more angible. We fail o disinguish beween hese levels and give supernaural characerisics o love o accoun for he difference in 'feel' beween i and oher feelings. I hink ha a good deal of wha I have said abou love can be visualized by he following diagrams. The firs (Diagram 2) is similar o he one depicing he srucure of beauy. The second, he graph (Diagram 3) is by no means inended o porray any exac mahemaical formulaion, bu is, raher, an indicaion, an aid o visualizaion of he process. 1. A, B, C, D (Diagram 2) are characerisics of he simulus, e.g., a woman. 2. Al, A 2, A3, A 4 are characerisics of one of he characerisics A and serve o indicae ha we can ake one of he characerisics of a simulus and consider ha one characerisic he whole simulus, e.g., he hair of he woman. 3. SA, S, Sc, SD and S Al, SA2, SAW SA4 are he sensaions hese characerisics produce in us, e.g., color, ase, smell. 4. The doed arrows indicae ha we projec hese sensaions back o he simulus so ha we see he color 'in' he simulus. The projeced sensaions are he 'qualiies' QA, Qn, Qc, Q. and QA,, QA21 QA3, QA4. 5. UPA, UPB, Pc, P, and PA,, UPA21 UPA3, UPA4 represen he pleasan and unpleasan feelings abou hese sensaions. 6. PW and UPAW represen our summarizaion of hese feelings o form a feeling of he pleasanness and unpleasanness, respecively, of he whole simulus. 7. LW and DLWA represen he feeling of like and dislike, respecively, direced (doed line) oward he simulus and resuling from he feelings PW and UP AW. The heavy line shows he 'linking' evaluaively of he simulus and is effec. Diagram 3 is a represenaion of a man's love for a woman. We arrange on he X-axis, in descending order of inensiy, his feelings of he pleasanness or unpleasanness of each of he characerisics he absracs. The Y-axis gives he relaive inensiy of each feeling. The solid line represens he pleasan, he doed line he unpleasan feelings. 1. This represens a case of love and no hae, because here is one feeling of pleasanness inense enough o pass over he emoional hreshold. I boh deermines he sign of he evaluaion (posiive) and changes he like o love because i is over he hreshold. If i had been an unpleasan feeling ha crossed he hreshold, his would have been a case of hae of he simulus. All oher feelings of lesser inensiy, no maer how many, canno affec he sign of he evaluaion. For inensiies are non-addiive. No maer how many low-inensiy feelings here are, hey canno add up o an inensiy higher han he highes one of he group. This is very similar o he relaionship

9 ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS beween hea and emperaure. Temperaures are non-addiive upwards. Ten liquids, he highes wih a emperaure of 100, when mixed, make a mixure wih a emperaure lower han 100. Bu he hea conen of he whole mixure will be he sum of he hea conens of each liquid and will be greaer han ha of any one liquid. Likewise wih love and hae. Though he one feeling of highes inensiy conrols he sign, he greaer he number of feelings of like sign, hough of lesser inensiy, he greaer he probabiliy of ha love or hared enduring, i.e., he greaer he 'hea conen' of ha feeling, as opposed o he 'emperaure' of is 'hoes' member. I say probably, because so much depends on he naure of he one characerisic whose evaluaion deermines he feeling of love or hae. 2. This graph is a represenaion of a love whose durabiliy is probably low. There is a powerful, unpleasan feeling very close o he emoional hreshold and, if one of wo hings happens, can cause a profound change in he feeling abou he simulus. a. If he one feeling of pleasanness which conrols he sign of he evaluaion (love) should change, disappear or lose in inensiy, he sign of he whole would change, for i would be conrolled by he feeling nex highes in inensiy, which is, in his case, one of unpleasanness. The feeling abou he whole would hen be one of inense dislike and if he hreshold should lower, would be one of hae. b. If he hreshold should rise, due o psycho-physiological changes produced hrough educaion, ages, environmen, ec., he love would change o like. 3. The number of unpleasan evaluaions,, and. heir inensiies, is much greaer han he pleasan. The area under each curve, which is a funcion of he number of feelings and heir inensiies, represens he probable durabiliy, he 'hea conen' as opposed o 'emperaure' of one of he members, of he feeling abou he whole each curve represens. The 'conen' of he love is less han 0.EI.ATIVL INTENSITY OF icllings FCCLINGS f TNL ELLASANTHLSS OE UNIVCASANTNCSS Of GNAAAGTEAISTIc3 Of TMC ST/MYLVS DIAGRAM 3 ha of he dislike, and if he hreshhold should change, or he conrolling posiive feeling change, a feeling of dislike of grea durabiliy would ake he place of he love for he simulus. 4. The line A represens an exreme case of 'infauaion.' No durabiliy (no area under he curve), bu one high inensiy feeling-a love based on he evaluaion of only one characerisic of he simulus. All infauaions, of course, are no quie as simple as his since hey usually involve idenificaion of he characerisics of he 'dream lover' wih hose of he acual. The line A can also represen a case of anger, a feeling of hared wih low durabiliy because of he few characerisics evaluaed-'high emperaure and low 'hea conen.' We have seen where beauy involves an evaluaion of he srucure of he simulus, and love, he causaive relaionship beween he simulus and is effecs. There is possible, hen, one more evaluaion having he pleasanness or unpleasanness of

10 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON NON-VERBAL LEVEL he sensaions and feelings produced by he simulus, as is immediae simulus, and ha is an evaluaion of he effecs, he feelings hemselves, ha he simulus produces in us. Each of us, a any given momen, is a mass of wans, desires and feelings, pleasan and unpleasan. We absrac, summarize, all hese feelings o form one feeling of pleasanness or unpleasanness which is our 'sae of mind' a he momen, and which we describe as degrees of happiness or unhappiness. Quie similar o he process involved in our evaluaion of beauy and love, he mos inense single pleasan or unpleasan feeling deermines he sign of he whole. If he inensiy of his deerminan feeling crosses he emoional hreshhold, our feeling of he whole-our sae of mind-can be described as ecsaic. Even hough we may be happy, here lurks in he background he memory of our various unpleasan, bu less inense, feelings, and hese serve o emper our happiness. Bu when we are ecsaic, hen we have passed ino he 'allness' sae-everyhing is wonderful, we are happy beyond doub, 'God's in his Heaven, all's righ wih he world.' If a simulus induces pleasan feelings in us, such as hose leading o beauy and love, hese feelings are 'sacked up' agains he oher feelings already presen in us, and since hey (like and love) are inense feelings, are mos likely o produce happiness or ecsacy in us, unless we have some more inense unpleasan feelings presen a he momen. Consequenly, we mos generally are happy when loving or when perceiving beauy. We can represen his rio of emoions deriving from he feeling of he pleasanness or unpleasanness of he whole simulus in erms of 'cause and effec.' A simulus, he 'cause,' produces an 'effec,' feelings of pleasanness or unpleasanness, 20 5 in us. If we evaluae he 'cause,' i leads o beauy. If we evaluae he 'effec,' i leads o happiness. If we evaluae he causaive relaionship beween he simulus and is effecs, i leads o 'like' and 'love.' The relaionship beween love and beauy is a paricularly close and ineresing one. Boh have as immediae simuli he pleasan feelings produced by he various characerisics of he simulus. Since love involves an evaluaion of he causaive relaionship beween he simulus and he feelings i provokes in us, we are prone o ascribe o he simulus characerisics which can accoun for he inense feelings produced when he 'emoional hreshhold' is crossed, characerisics oher han he ones which have acually been responsible for his feeling of love. And his is in accord wih he allness' naure of love whereby 'everyhing' abou he simulus becomes wonderful. Indeed, we even see `wonderful' hings in i ha are no here. Now, his ascribing of characerisics o he simulus o accoun for a reacion i produces in us is precisely he process involved in our evaluaion of he beauy of he simulus. Therefore, whaever we 'love' appears 'beauiful' o us. No loving moher ever had a homely child, no lover an 'ugly' mae. We see wha we wan o see, and if we can' we ascribe some inangible characerisic o he simulus, whereby, i appears beauiful o us. However, he reverse is no always rue. We do no always love wha appears beauiful o us. For he beauy of he simulus is considered as jus one of he characerisics of i, and here may be oher characerisics which produce inense unpleasan feelings in us which overbalance hose caused by beauy. In hese cases we really see he simulus, no as beauiful, bu as very prey, because

11 ETC. : he emoional hreshold is no longer reached as regards his characerisic of he simulus. III A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS 2 06 I is necessary a his poin o inroduce Korzybski's discovery of he muliordinaliy of some of our mos imporan erms. As he has shown, such erms like 'yes,' 'no,' 'rue,' 'false,' 'love,' 'hae,' 'doub,' 'cause,' 'effec' are such ha if hey can be applied o a saemen, hey can be applied o a saemen abou he firs saemen, and so, ulimaely o all saemens, no maer wha heir order of absracion. Consequenly, such erms have only definie 'meanings' ('values') on a given level and in a given conex. Wihou he level of absracion being specified a muliordinal erm is only ambiguous, and is use generaes, no proposiions, bu proposiional funcions, which are neiher 'rue' nor 'false.' Now I wish o poin ou ha, alhough a muliordinal erm has no definie 'meaning' in general, i.e., is 'meaning' varies wih he conex and he order of absracion, neverheless, all hese differen 'meanings' will have some elemens in common. If his were no so, and a muliordinal erm ouside of a conex were absoluely ambiguous, we would no be able o selec a erm o use in our saemens. Thus, we know ha 'love' in general has a differen 'meaning' from 'fear' or 'doub' in general. So, when we are preparing a saemen ha requires he erm 'love' o express i, we selec i and no some oher erm. Afer we pu i in he saemen, i acquires a definie order and value, and we can ascerain he ruh or falsehood of he saemen. This skeleon of he erm is invarian under all ransformaions and mainains he same 'meaning' in all conexs and on all levels of absracion. However, we canno gen- erae proposiions using his skeleal 'meaning,' bu only proposiional funcions, because i is only a par of each one of he 'meanings' each paricular conex gives i, a par ha remains consan while he res of he 'meanings' vary. We can express i mahemaically by considering each muliordinal erm a produc of a consan and a variable, kx. The consan k always remains he same. The x akes on he value ha he conex of he saemen in which i is used besows upon i. We have been speaking, up o now, abou love, beauy, and happiness-apparenly in general. Acually, I have been wriing of firs-order love. Of he order of beauy and happiness we will say more laer. Firs-order love is he love of somehing or somebody. Second-order love is he love of a firs-order feeling. We can ake as an example of his firs-order feeling a firs-order love-hough i can be any oher firs-order feeling, as we shall see laer. The love of a firs-order love is he love o f he love o f somehing or somebody. Since is immediae simulus is a firs-order love, iself he end produc of an absracing process, i is much less 'emoional' and 'personal' han firs-order love. Since i is never he produc of loworder absracions, as firs-order love ofen is (love a firs sigh, ec.) i is always open o 'reason.' Second-order love involves he evaluaion of he effecs of firs-order love on ourselves. These effecs saisfy desires in us which produce pleasan feelings and which lead o our love of he firs-order love because is effecs saisfy hese desires. I is worh noing ha he love of he inense feelings involved in firs-order love is no a rue second-order love, i.e., he saying 'he is in love wih love' is no a saemen of a second-order love. For, a second-order love (of love) has as is

12 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON NON-VERBAL LEVEL immediae simulus a firs-order love, while wih he above, he immediae simulus for he love are he feelings associaed wih a love, which feelings do no represen a firs-order love, since hey are no direced oward he simulus ha produced hem. I is simply a case of firsorder love, a love of he 'hrills' accompanying and resuling from a firs-order love of somehing or somebody. Third-order love is sill furher removed from halamic hinking, i.e., i is even less 'emoional' han second-order love. Since i is he evaluaion o f he evaluaion of he effecs o f a firs-order feeling, i implies consciousness of he absracing process. I is apparen, from he difference beween he hree orders, ha any precise, general definiion of love is impossible. A he same ime, here is a consan value (k) running hrough all he levels, and ha is he exisence, on all levels of absracion, of he evaluaion of he causaive relaionship beween he simulus and is effec on us, and a direced feeling oward he simulus as a resul of his evaluaion. Wha varies is he naure of he effecs of he simulus, which is deermined by is order. This difference beween he orders will become even more apparen when we examine a negaive erm like 'hae.' Firsorder hae resuls when dislike crosses he emoional hreshold, and is a feeling involving he desire o desroy he simulus (as opposed o love which involves a desire o proec and perpeuae he simulus) because i frusraes he saisfacion of powerful desires or insincs, or produces inensely unpleasan feelings in us. Like love, i involves 'allness' and 'posiiveness,' and is direced agains he whole simulus even hough simulaed by only one or a few characerisics of he simulus. Like love, i is open o reason, i.e., 2 07 can be influenced by high-order absracions, o he degree ha i is a produc of high-order absracions, and inversely o he degree ha i is a produc of 'halamic hinking.' Second-order hae is he hae of a firsorder feeling. I is he hae of he effecs on ourselves of a firs-order feeling in ourselves. I follows in he same paern as second-order love wih a very imporan difference. Taking as an example a hae of a firs-order hae, we find ha i implies a love, or a leas a liking, for he original simulus-a reversal of he firsorder feeling. Thus, if I hae my hae of a man, i implies a liking for ha man, or a desire o like him, a desire or liking resuling from high-order absracions. I evaluaed he effecs of my firs-order hae and found hem so unpleasan ha I haed hem, and desired no o hae his man because of he effecs of his hared upon me. In a case of his ype, i is mos probably ha he firs-order hae was conraced hrough 'halamic hinking,' i.e., race prejudice, and he second-order hae of his hae resuled from high-order absracions produced by educaion agains prejudice. As I menioned above, any feeling abou a firs-order feeling is a secondorder feeling. Thus, he love of a firsorder hae is a second-order love, and a hae of a firs-order love is a second-order hae. These follow he mahemaical rule governing he sign of he produc of posiive and negaive numbers. The difference in characer beween firs-order and second-order feelings is responsible for our being able o love and hae a simulus a he same ime. There is an old saying o he effec ha every man haes he hing he loves. If we fail o differeniae beween he orders of hese feelings, we are led ino a paradoxical siuaion. Bu if we analyze he siuaion

13 ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS we find, for example, ha a man has a firs-order love for a woman and a secondorder hae for his love of her because he may be married o anoher or because his love robs him of his independence, ec. This second-order hae of his love brings him o hae or dislike her a imes, bu since is inensiy is less han ha of his firs-order love, and of a differen characer (non-halamic) i does no nullify he firs-order love. We can readily see, now, he danger of making saemens abou hae in general, for wihou specifying he order we can no know if i is a wholly negaive erm like firs-order hae, or if i conains posiive characerisics which second-order haes may have. Third-order hae follows he same law of muliplicaion of signs as does secondorder hae, and, like hird-order love implies consciousness of he absracing process. One oher poin is worh noing here, and ha is, ha we canno have secondorder feelings which have as heir immediae simuli he firs-order feelings of oher people. For we canno feel or know he feelings of ohers. We can only infer heir exisence and assume ha hey are similar o our own. We can infer he exisence of hese feelings from a person's acions or words. Bu his inference is a high-order absracion, as is our evaluaion of his words. If I say I love A's love of B, I am only guessing ha A loves B. My love, hen, is no of A's love, bu of his acions or words, from which I infer ha he loves B. Consequenly, my love is no he love of a feeling (in A), bu of acions or words, and, herefore, is no a second-order love, which is he love of a feeling (firs-order). I can illusrae his by a raher bizarre and, improbable, bu perfecly possible, example. Suppose I like chocolae very much. A 2 08 man produces a bar of chocolae and offers i o me, saying ha he does no like chocolae and I may have i all. If we say ha I like his dislike of chocolae because i mean my geing he whole bar, we run ino rouble, because, according o our rule of signs, a posiive like of a negaive dislike would imply my dislike of chocolae. Bu, really, I am inferring from his words and his acion in giving i o me ha he dislikes he chocolae. He may really like chocolae, bu gives i o me o appear generous, or i migh be poisoned, ec., ec. So, herefore, my like is no a second-order like because i sems, no from a firs-order dislike, bu from he evaluaion of words and acions. We come, now, o a consideraion of second-order beauy. Since firs-order beauy is a non-exisen characerisic which we assign o he simulus o accoun for is effecs on us, second-order beauy, considered as he non-exisen characerisic assigned o a non-exisen characerisic, is meaningless. If we should consider as second-order beauy he evaluaion of he effecs of firs-order beauy on ourselves, we will find ha his evaluaion is no a purely srucural one, i.e., we do no find ourselves assigning o he effecs of firs-order beauy characerisics of srucure o accoun for he pleasan feelings hey produce in us. This evaluaion of he effecs of firs-order beauy is a causaive one and leads, no o secondorder beauy, bu o second-order like or love of he effecs of he simulus on us. Beauy, herefore, is no a muliordinal erm, and he erms firs-order and secondorder are misnomers. The opposie of beauy, ugliness, is of he same general naure bu opposie in sign. However, here is one ineresing characerisic conneced wih i, and wih oher inense negaive feelings such as hae and sorrow. These feelings, since

14 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON NON-VERBAL LEVEL hey are over he emoional hreshold, acquire some of he 'hrill' characerisics associaed wih all powerful feelings (boh posiive and negaive) which have crossed his hreshold. These 'negaive hrills' have a cerain pleasanness abou hem, and his accouns for he morbid deligh people have in going o funerals or seeing sad moion picures in order o 'ge a good cry.' I also accouns for he pleasure we experience in he exremely ugly, so ha we have a peculiar dualiy of emoion. 'Happiness' and 'ecsasy' are, likewise, no muliordinal erms. For a secondorder happiness resuling from a firsorder feeling of happiness in ourselves leads o a redundancy. I is equivalen o saying, 'I am made happy by my feeling of happiness.' I can imagine he raher arificial case in which one migh say, 'This feeling of firs-order happiness is beneficial o my healh and he hough of his effec makes me happy-a secondorder happiness.' However, he momen we sop o hink abou our feeling of happiness we are no longer happy. For happiness is a summaion of all our feelings a he momen, and any feeling abou his summaion is ouside he summaion and desroys i. All of which accouns for he elusiveness and fragiliy of his feeling, as so aply expressed in he poem by Blake : He who binds o himself a joy Does he winged life desroy ; Bu he who kisses he joy as i flies Lives in eerniy's sun rise. IV When we come o he examinaion of oher feelings such as anger, fear, and worry and variaions and combinaions of hese feelings wih oher feelings, we will find ha like and love, dislike and hae hold a very imporan and disincive 20 9 place among hem. They are he only feelings-ogeher wih oher feelings which are combinaions of hese feelings wih oher feelings-which have a negaive or posiive sign, in he mahemaical sense. We can accoun for his on he basis of he 'direcional' characer of hese feelings. Since hey are causaive evaluaions, hey involve boh he 'cause' and he 'effec.' Consequenly, here are wo 'poins' involved. Two poins deermine a line (on a plane), and, vecorially speaking, every line has a direcion, posiive or negaive. On he oher hand, beauy and happiness, involving only single poins, have no direcion as well as no muliordinaliy. This direcional characerisic is also found in such feelings as doub, which resuls, essenially, from he comparison of wo or more evaluaions. Fear, in is general, ambiguous sense, is a feeling involving he desire o flee from a simulus. Firs-order fear is a feeling involving an inferenial evaluaion of he effecs of a simulus upon ourselves or ohers. I is an inferenial evaluaion because he simulus has no affeced us a he momen of evaluaion ; is effecs are impending. Since hey are impending we, infer (basing our inference on insinc, pas experience or higher-order absracions) ha hese effecs will be harmful or very unpleasan o us. Once he simulus 'his' us we no longer fear i. I may fear a mad dog, bu once i sars biing me I am oo busy fighing i o fear i, excep in he psychopahological case where I am paralyzed wih frigh. I may fear cancer, bu once I know I have i I no longer fear i, hough I may sill fear he deah i promises. Fear differs from feelings like love and hae in wo imporan respecs. Firs, i is wha may be called a primary feeling, because i is no a feeling abou a feeling,

15 ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS as is love, which is an evaluaion of he pleasan feelings provoked by he simulus and can herefore be considered a secondary feeling, bu resuls direcly from he inferenial evaluaion of he effecs of he simulus. Secondly, i is no a feeling abou he whole simulus, as are like and love, bu a feeling resuling from he evaluaion of hose characerisics of he simulus which can harm us, and always includes he space-ime characerisics of hese characerisics. Our fear diminishes in direc proporion o he increase in 'disance' and ime' beween us and our conac wih he harmful characerisics of he simulus. Because i is a space-ime evaluaion, and because i is only a parial evaluaion of he simulus, fear does no have he direcional characer ha love and hae have." I is rue ha we end o flee-a negaively direced feeling-from ha which we fear, bu his endency is always subjec o he influence of our evaluaion of hose characerisics of he simulus which do no incie fear in us, and also, o he proximiy of hose which ' I should like o make clear ha I am using he erm 'direcional' in a special sense here, i.e., i is no given direcion or 'lined-up' beween he wo 'poins'-simulus and he effecs of he simulus-hrough an evaluaion of heir relaionship, as is he case wih love and hae. Therefore, he fear of a fear does no reverse and become posiive in characer as does he hae of a hae. As Korzybski very kindly poined ou in a review of he paper, 'We may consider "firsorder fear" as direced or vecorial. However, "second-order fear" or "fear of fear" loses is direcional characer and becomes a "spacefilling curve" of Peano In his conex, a "hird-order fear" would gain direcion again of "second-order fear." ' As can be seen, Korzybski is using he erm 'direcional' in he sense of allocaing 'fears' o heir cause or causes and differs from he very limied and special sense in which I used i here do. Thus, I fear a iger when I am in is den and i is hungry. Bu when i is behind bars I do no fear i, and, in fac, acually like i because of is beauy and grace. A man may fear he law, and even afer he has broken i, may sill like i because he feels ha he has his punishmen 'coming o him.' This mixure of fear and like we may find in a soldier's feelings oward his general and in a worshipper's oward his god. The fearprovoking characerisics of he simulus are evaluaed in conjuncion wih ohers and if hese ohers are more inense, in a posiive direcion, hen we will like or love he simulus in spie of our fear. Second-order fear is he fear of he effecs upon us of a firs-order feeling. The fear of a firs-order fear is of mos ineres a his poin. Like firs-order fear i is an inferenial evaluaion. We fear he effecs ha we infer will occur when we experience he firs-order fear. A he momen of experiencing he firs-order fear, we are oo busy wih i o experience a second-order fear. And i is o he fac ha i is an inferenial evaluaion ha second-order fear owes is morbid characer. Firs-order fear is a mechanism necessary for he survival of he organism. When he simulus which we fear is removed, we cease o fear i. Bu wih second-order fear, he simulus is wihin us and we canno flee i ; nor is i ever removed excep when we forge i or conquer i hrough semanic re-evaluaion. Noe ha i is no he acual effecs of he firs-order fear as i occurs ha we fear, bu he effecs ha we infer will occur when we experience he firs-order fear. Since i is a fear of wha will happen in he fuure, i is relaively permanen, i.e., unil eiher he firs-order fear occurs, and afer which we no longer experience he firs-order fear, or unil we conquer eiher he firs- or second-order

16 FUNCTIONAL PATTERNS ON NON-VERBAL LEVEL fear hrough psycho-physiological readjusmen. This relaive permanence of secondorder fear is exremely devializing o he organism. The presence of fear of any order causes a grea increase in meabolic aciviy, and if his is susained over a grea period of ime, as wih second-order fear, will impair he funcioning of he whole sysem. In urn, his impaired funcioning decreases boh he abiliy o comba he simulus ha caused he firsorder fear and he abiliy o conrol he second-order fear. This, in urn, ends o increase boh fears, hus furher decreasing our conrol over hese fears. This vicious circle, if no broken, will evenually lead o he nervous disorganizaion of he sysem. The essenial poin abou he morbidiy of second-order fear is ha i is due, primarily, o our misevaluaion of he spaceime characerisics of he simulus which caused he firs-order fear. We 'picure' he firs-order fear as being 'here' and 'now' whereas i is no 'here' and has no ye occurred. Second-order fear, like firs-order, is a parial evaluaion, and herefore does no have he direcional aribues of hae and love. Third-order fear is he fear of a secondorder fear or oher second-order feeling. I implies awareness of he fac ha here exiss a second-order fear( or oher feeling of second-order) and his indicaes consciousness of absracion. A hird-order fear of a second-order fear is of he same morbid naure as he fear of fear and conribues o he general nervous disinegraion. Indeed, if, afer knowing he srucure of his process, one is sill powerless o conrol i, a nervous breakdown is ominously close. Very closely relaed, in characer and effec, o fear is 'worry.' Is general, am biguous meaning is ha of a feeling of mixed fear and uncerainy. Firs-order worry, like fear, is an inferenial evaluaion of he effecs of a simulus. Unlike firs-order fear, and very similar o second-order fear, i involves a misevaluaion of he space-ime characerisics of he simulus. Firs-order fear is a necessiy for he survival of he organism and under normal circumsances does no harm o i. Second-order fear, involving he space-ime misevaluaion, becomes psycho-pahological, and firsorder worry, also involving i, likewise mus be considered in his ligh. For example, a man fears he loss of his forune. Business is bad and his posiion precarious, and here is nohing he can do abou i. If he adops ha very aiude-'here is nohing I can do abou i, so I will jus wai and see wha happens'-i remains a firs-order fear. Bu if, insead, he keeps 'picuring' o himself he effecs of his losing his business, and a he same ime wondering i f he will lose i, hen his fear has changed o worry. There are wo highly desrucive elemens associaed wih his feeling. Firs, he space-ime misevaluaion : he picures he failure as having already aken place and reacs o i in essenially he same manner ha he will when i does happen. This reacion involves inense psychophysiological disurbances, bu is no oo harmful, unless repeaed ofen. Bu i is repeaed ofen-every ime he hinks of he failure occurring. These repeaed shocks ineviably lead o very serious resuls-somach ulcers, indigesion, 'nervous breakdown,' ec. Secondly, if he man knew ha failure was ineviable, he migh become reconciled o i, afer a fashion, and hough he would sill fear failure he would be prepared for i, and he shock o his sysem-would be much less, boh when i does occur and when he 'picures'

17 ETC. : A REVIEW OF GENERAL SEMANTICS i as occurring. However, he does no know for cerain ha he will fail. This uncerainy prevens him from becoming reconciled o his fae and so he receives he full force of hese shocks. Second-order worry abou a firs-order worry follows he same vicious circle ha ypifies he second-order fear of a firs order fear, wih he added 'oxiciy' of uncerainy. This analogy holds for hirdorder worry and hird-order fear. Firs-order anger is a secondary feeling akin o dislike and hae. I is a feeling abou he unpleasanness of sensaions and feelings he simulus provokes in us. These feelings are mos ofen in he naure of frusraions of desires, hough we do ge angry a oher ypes of feelings. This feeling abou hese feelings we call anger and involves he `blind,' unhinking desire o desroy or hur he simulus because i produced hese unpleasan feelings. I is, herefore, a causaive evaluaion of simulus and effec, and like hae is direcional in naure and of negaive sign. I differs from hae in he relaive briefness of is exisence, usually dying ou when he simulus is removed. Hae very ofen is he resulan of high-order absracions, involving evaluaion (or misevaluaion) of he characerisics, srucure and acion of he simulus as, for example, he hae of fascism based on he evaluaion of is effecs on people, naions, ec. Anger is never he resul of high-order absracions, bu he resul of `halamic hinking.' We may ge angry a cerain acions of cerain fasciss a cerain imes, bu i akes an evaluaion of he whole o make us hae fascism. I is rue ha hae is ofen he resul of prejudice, which, apparenly, is a case of low-order, 'halamic hinking.' Bu acually his is no rue. Prejudice is a resulan of highorder absracions, bu hese are confused in order and involve objecificaions and idenificaions. Wih anger here is no reasoning. We ac almos enirely on he halamic level, which is why we find i so difficul o conrol, i.e., o influence i by high-order absracions. We migh call anger `halamic hae.' We have represened i on our char as a single verical line someimes crossing he emoional hreshold o give a violen feeling similar o hae in is desire o desroy he simulus. Since i resuls from he evaluaion of only one characerisic of he simulus, i is represened by a single line and he lack of area under his line indicaes he absence of durabiliy. Second-order anger reverses signs as does second-order hae and lacks he sponaneiy and inensiy of firs-order anger. Third-order anger is similar o oher negaive secondary hird-order feelings in sign and characer. Good sense is, of all hings among men, he mos equally disribued ; for everyone hinks himself so abundanly provided wih i ha hose even who are he mos difficul o saisfy in everyhing else do no usually desire a larger measure of his qualiy, han hey already possess.-descartes