The Map Is Not The Territory Salviati Planisphere Mouse Mat

Have you ever held an incomplete mental model in your head? In other words, have you ever had a fixed idea in your head and then, when you go out into the world to explore and experiment, find out that the mental model is either incomplete, incorrect, or both? Let your wry psychological and philosophical side shine with this design featuring The Salviati Planisphere (circa 1525), a mental representation of what cartographers in the 16th century thought the world looked like, along with Alfred Korzybski's infamous quote "The map is not the territory". As a founder of general semantics, Korzybski argued that human knowledge of the world is limited both by the human nervous system and by language. Consequently, no one can have direct access to reality, because all of what we know is filtered through our brain's responses to reality. If we hold mental models of the world that are inherently incomplete since we experience and understand the world through our abstractions, then we must understand the limitations of any model or viewpoint that we have of the world. Classic mental expression mousepad for anyone who has held an abstract model in one's mind.