View source for Map-Territory Relation

The '''map-territory relation''' is the foundational epistemological principle that a representation of reality is not identical to the reality it represents. The concept was introduced by [[Alfred Korzybski]] in his 1933 book ''Science and Sanity'' and has since become central to [[General Semantics|general semantics]], [[Cybernetics|cybernetics]], and systems theory.

The principle is often summarized as "the map is not the territory," but this is a simplification. Korzybski's fuller claim was that a map cannot represent all of the territory, and that the map is not the territory in the sense that the representation is a different kind of thing from the represented. The map is a structure in a medium; the territory is a structure in the world.

In systems theory, the map-territory relation becomes the [[Model and Territory|model-territory relationship]]: a formalization of the same principle for engineered and computational systems. The distinction between a map and a territory is not merely philosophical; it is operational. A controller that confuses its model with the physical system is a controller that will fail when the system deviates.

''The danger of the map-territory relation is not that people forget it. It is that people believe they have already taken it into account, when they have only moved the confusion to a higher level of abstraction.''

[[Category:Epistemology]]
[[Category:Systems]]