INTENSIONAL PATTERNS EXTENSIONAL PATTERNS

“cat” An object we call “cat”.

The word "cat ". A pattern of physical and

The image of this cat. chemical events best

Ideas about cats. known to science.

Feelings about cats.

Physical tensions aroused

by the cat：the urge to

The word “cat” A pattern of physical and chemical events

The image of this cat best known to science

Ideas about cats

Feelings about cats…

Thinking along these lines, Alfred Korzybski began to see what was wrong with the great number of people：they confused intensional events with extensional “reality”. He believed that too many people mistake the events in their own nervous systems for events in the outside world . When they get lost in a strange city , more often than not they are angry at the map they use. In fact, it’s the maps of words in their heads that are to blame.