Published Paper Details:

While Aristotelean thinking supported the idea that things just are a certain way and can be described in a finite and satisfactory manner and Newtonian physics stated that the world is considered a collection of finite, separate phenomena that can be studied in isolation from anything else, a new way of perceiving the things developed with Alfred Korzybski and Michel Foucault, who re-examined the old ways of conceptualization and map-building. Both came with their own theories called General Semantics by Alfred Korzybski and New Historicism by Michel Foucault. Alfred Korzybski developed the theory in his book "Science & Sanity" (1933) where he stated that any map may have a structure that is either similar or dissimilar to the structure of the territory and that physical objects and phenomena cannot be regarded unchangeable, finite constructs that could be studied in isolation. This system of logic and of studying man's relation to his world where things were found to be much more interdependent and fluid than earlier assumed was the start of General Semantics, a Non-Aristotelean system which came up with Korzybski's best known dictum "The map is not the territory". In the same way, Michel Foucault, the French postmodernist uses the term 'power/knowledge' to signify that power is constituted through accepted forms of knowledge, scientific understanding and 'truth'. Foucault challenges the idea that power is wielded by people or groups by way of 'episodic' or 'sovereign' acts of domination or coercion, seeing it instead as dispersed and pervasive stating 'Power is everywhere' and 'comes from everywhere' so in this sense is neither an agency nor a structure (Foucault 1998: 63). Instead it is a kind of 'metapower' or 'regime of truth' that pervades society, and which is in constant flux and negotiation. In this way, both the thinkers question the old definitions of map and power and present a new and more inclusive system of knowledge and power. The paper would attempt the re- examination of evidences and assumptions by Korzybski and Foucault, challenging the conventional forms of knowledge and reality.