People mean different things by “the map is not the territory”. For instance, it’s sometimes used to say “no description is perfectly accurate” whereas other times it’s more like “be careful not to confuse levels of reference.” And sometimes it’s more like a critique of magical thinking: “changing the map doesn’t change the territory.”
There’s a Wikipedia article about it, too … which also isn’t especially great …
People mean different things by “the map is not the territory”. For instance, it’s sometimes used to say “no description is perfectly accurate” whereas other times it’s more like “be careful not to confuse levels of reference.” And sometimes it’s more like a critique of magical thinking: “changing the map doesn’t change the territory.”
There’s a Wikipedia article about it, too … which also isn’t especially great …