An expression coined by Eric Bell and popularized by Alfred Korzybski, and used in General Semantics and Neuro-linguistic programming, the map is not the territory recognises that individuals may mistake a metaphorical representation of a concept for the concept itself. A specific metaphor may not capture all important facets of what it represents, and may thus limit an individual's understanding unless the two are distinguished.

"The Betrayal of Images" (1928-9), by René Magritte. The French text on the painting reads, "This is not a pipe."

This concept also occurs in the discussion of exoteric and esoteric religions. Exoteric concepts are concepts which can be fully conveyed using descriptors and language constructs, such as mathematics. Esoteric concepts are concepts which cannot be fully conveyed except by direct experience. For example, a person who has never tasted an apple will never fully understand through language what the taste of an apple is. Only through direct experience - eating an apple - can that experience be fully understood.

The surrealist artist René Magritte illustrated this concept in a famous painting entitled The Betrayal of Images, which consists of a drawing of a pipe with the caption, Ceci n'est pas une pipe ("This is not a pipe").

Lewis Carroll, in Sylvie and Bruno (1889), made a somewhat related point humorously with his description of a fictional map that had "the scale of a mile to the mile." A character notes some practical difficulties with such a map and states that "we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well."

David Foster Wallace's novel Infinite Jest has a scene in which the students at Enfield Tennis Academy confuse the map with the territory while playing the game Eschaton, resulting in a breakdown of the structure of the game, mass confusion, and several injuries.

See also

• philosophy of perception
• Zen
• Discordianism
• Mary's room