To Be or Not: An E-Prime Anthology

About this book

Examine the verbs of the "to be" family and you will find a startling underlying assumption. The words be been is was am were etc. have their logical basis in the idea that things stay the same. The notion of identity a things absolute sameness with a similar thing or with itself over time has confused and corrupted thinking since the days of Aristotle. Life means change: growth learning metamorphosis decay. Even the apparently changeless earth changes as moving plates push up mountains or split continents apart. Today we often experience rapid social and technological change. Yet our daily language has at its foundation the assumption that things dont change an assumption that helps us focus and therefore "understand " but also leads us astray when we act as if things havent changed and they have. How can we deal with this "two-edged sword" that both helps and hinders us in our daily lives? E-Prime a new variant of English that eliminates the verbs of the "to be" family makes us aware of the problem and offers one solution. Some of the benefits: lively concise writing and speaking; clearer more critical thinking; better communication evaluation and decision-making.