Trying to find a book from the 1920s about man being the "time-fixing animal"

[thedoorsareopen]

Hi, I unfortunately lost my bookmark to this book, and can't remember the title or author for the life of me. I think I found it in these forums, or maybe in a link from these forums, so I will describe it, and hopefully someone here knows it?

It was a pdf of one of those books from the 1920s or 30s where a guru lays out his detailed scheme of life, of mankind, and how best to live your life. Seemed like the author was American. I only read the first chapter, which said that the author's main point was that humans have the ability to create memories and recall them. He called recording memories "fixing time into your mind," or something like that. Man stands out from nature because of our ability to fix memories into mind and act on them, thus leapfrogging us out of nature's normal patterns of time.

From there he started going into the ego, and what happens when these excreted memories come together to form an identity, and it seemed like he was saying something pretty similar to how Leo puts it, which is that ultimately, our identities are simply a collection of memories witnessed by nothing, which the nothing takes to mean that it is something.

It seemed really interesting, but I just don't remember enough info to track it down again. I could have sworn the title was "The Time-Fixing Animal" but that hasn't turned up anything. I worry I'll never come across it again.

So what say you? Does anyone remember this book or know what I'm talking about?

[Leo Gura]

Sounds like Alfred Korzybski.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alfred_Korzybski

Manhood of Humanity

[thedoorsareopen]

Yeah, this is it. I misremembered it a lot, but the phrase he used was humanity is the time-binding class of life. Thanks, Leo!