- Although Map is not the object itself, a good map has a structure similar to the structure of the object, which creates usefulness (i.e., pragmatism is correct).
A Philosophical Approach to Models | The Possible
“The map is not the territory” is a phrase coined by the Polish-American philosopher and engineer Alfred Korzybski. He used it to convey the fact that people often confuse models of reality with reality itself. According to Korzybski, models stand to represent things, but they are not identical to those things. Even at their best, models require interpretation. They are imperfect because they are, by definition, an abstraction of some larger complexity. Furthermore, we often misunderstand their limitations, preferring an incorrect model to no model at all. It’s human nature.
Map–territory relation - Wikipedia map-land-relationships - Wikipedia
An abstraction derived from a thing or a reaction to a thing is not the thing itself. Map is not the very locality it represents. However, if accurate, it has a structure similar to that of the locality, and that is what makes it useful. A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
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