The Structural Differential

The structural differential was a model devised by Alfred Korzybski, a founder of general semantics.

The purpose of the structural differential is to draw attention to the abstraction process that humans take part in constantly. In short, the structural differential is a visual representation of how we as humans abstract our “reality” from a field of sense impressions. From this field we draw out certain qualities which we as a culture have assigned to each word.

From a four legged object holding a flat plane and another flat plane perpendicular to the first, we abstract a “chair”. We can say that object is a “chair” and others will agree, or disagree, based on consensus reality.

That’s magic! But it doesn’t stop there. We keep on abstracting while almost entirely unaware. To continue our example, we can add on more particulars such as, “it’s an orange chair”. “That chair looks broken.” “Broken chairs suck.” Fairly harmless when we talk about chairs but change the topic to animals, including other humans, and these generalizations and abstractions can quickly take a dark and dangerous turn. Read more to learn greater awareness of yourself and why you think the way you do.

As Alred Korzybski said, “The Map is not the territory.” Or as Robert Anton Wilson paraphrased, “the model is not reality". It’s just a useful mental approach to better understand life, ourselves, and others, but it does not capture all of reality. No single map or model can represent all of reality or it would become useless to us, a data overload. We must be aware.

If that blows your mind wait until you read about E-Prime.

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Don’t forget. All is maybe. But this might be a funner existence.