The statement ''map is not territory'' for the first time was used by Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950) and since then is often repeated to describe differences between the real and mental worlds.
He 'was a Polish-American independent scholar who developed a field called general semantics, which he viewed as both distinct from, and more encompassing than, the field of semantics'. He argued that human knowledge of the world is limited by the nervous system and languages, and therefore no one can have direct access to reality, because we can only know what is filtered through brain responses.
Our perception of the world is generated by our brain and can be treated as a 'map' of reality written in neural patterns. Reality exists outside of our minds, but we can construct models of this "territory" based on what we perceive with our senses. Each of us creates a mental picture of the world in different ways. What we know about reality is based on our experiences. But even two people are experiencing the same, they picture it differently. They make their mental world, the 'map'.
Human's conscious mind can process about five to seven pieces of information at the time – there is still debate about it, but let's assume it is true. More information could overload our capacity, and we would get crazy. To make us safe and sane we developed a system of filtration. Every second we filter stimuli which we receive through senses from the outside world. Unconsciously our focus is on the things which are important to us, but not to someone else. The world, the reality is the same for everyone, but we are using different ''maps'' to go through life. Nobody can say what is true or what is not true, because the truth is different for each of us.
The craziest thing for me is the fact, that even somebody is trying to describe 'his reality', I am taking it using my filtering system, and 'his reality' is different from 'his reality in my mind'.
Of course, this is not a recent discovery. Probably this Socrates had in the mind when he said: ''the true wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us''.
David Hume (1711-1776) said that ''beauty is no quality in things themselves: it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them, and each mind perceives a different beauty''.
''Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world'' said Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860).
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849): ''All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream''.
Thomas Hardy (1840-1928): ''In making even horizontal and clear inspections we colour and mould according to the wants within us whatever our eyes bring in'',.
C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), author of 'Alice in Wonderland': ''What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing. It also depends on what sort of person you are''.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900): ''All things are subject to interpretation''.
Why it is important to remember all of that? I don't know the universal answer. I think it depends on what kind of 'map' do you create.
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