Ineffability

Ineffability is concerned with ideas that cannot or should not be expressed in spoken words (or language in general), often being in the form of a taboo or incomprehensible term. This property is commonly associated with philosophy, aspects of existence, and similar concepts that are inherently "too great", complex, or abstract to be adequately communicated. In addition, illogical statements, principles, reasons, and arguments are intrinsically ineffable along with impossibilities, contradictions, and paradoxes. Terminology describing the nature of experience cannot be properly conveyed in dualistic symbolic language; it is believed that this knowledge is only held by the individual from which it originates. Profanity and vulgarisms can easily and clearly be stated, but by those who consider they should not be said, they are considered ineffable. Thus, one method of describing something that is ineffable is by using apophasis, i.e. describing what it is not, rather than what it is.

Notable quotations

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." — Ludwig Wittgenstein

"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; the name that can be named is not the eternal name." — the Tao Te Ching

"My life, the most truthful one, is unrecognizable, extremely interior, and there is no single word that gives it meaning." — Clarice Lispector

T.S. Eliot's poem "The Naming of Cats" (1939) playfully suggests that every household cat must bear (besides whatever the family calls him) two additional names: one an exotic appellation shared by no other cat; the other forever unutterable because it is known only to the cat himself ("His ineffable effable / Effanineffable / Deep and inscrutable singular Name"). This idea is carried on in the movie "Logan's Run".

"Moses said to God, 'Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, "The God of your fathers has sent me to you," and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM" — Exodus 3:13-14 (New International Version) (see Tetragrammaton).

Things said to be ineffable

Things said to be essentially incommunicable

• The innate properties of any form of perception, at any level (such as awareness, self-consciousness, or other perceptions of the perceived to an arbitrary extent)
• The nature of qualia (sensory experiences), such as colors or flavors
• The nature of emotions (with love being a prominent example)
• The nature of religious experiences, e.g. Søren Kierkegaard's analysis of Abraham in Fear and Trembling, Problemata III, and in particular the mystic's realization of nonduality
• The near-death experience
• The experience of birth
• The experience of death
• The psychedelic experience is largely considered ineffable to psychologists, philosophers and psychonauts alike
• The musical experience, following Theodor Adorno, Vladimir Jankélévitch, among others
• The human soul (see also sentience and the hard problem of consciousness)
• The meaning of life

Things said to be incomprehensibly incommunicable

• Pre-mortal-existence
• Post-death
• Some interpretations of God
• Higher Dimensions

Things whose expression are regarded as sacred, or otherwise socially prohibited

• The name of a god or gods, in some religions^[1]
  • The Tetragrammaton (יהוה, by orthodox Jewish tradition)

See also

• Meaning (linguistics)
• True name
• Effable
• Atopy (philosophy)

References