map-territory relation

• #language
• #philosophy

"The map is not the territory."

"The word is not the thing."

The relationship between an object and a representation of that object, often including examples of many ways that an abstraction or conceptual model of an object can be confused with the object or the reality of that object.

One of many topics explored by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.

Example: how flat maps of the world misrepresent the relative sizes of countries.

Compare/contrast with Performativity.