can something exist that we can not describe in some way because there is nothing to compare it to?

Question

because it is either too big, or to beautiful for example that the words and descriptions we have in our knowledge don't work.

Answer 1

Yes, it happens more often than we think. Our language is very limited, and actually not very good at descriptions. Think about the impossibility of describing the simple shape of a towel dropped on the floor to a blind person, or trying to describe colors only using language. Language is terribly inadequate, all it can really do is serve as a guide, as a way to show others what we mean. It can't really describe anything, it can only try to get the listener to relate to a shared experience- saying that the towel dropped on the floor looked like something, or that an unknown color looks like the mix between other known colors.

I would say that it doesn't have to be anything too big for comprehension that would cause language to be insufficient, it happens all the time, but we don't notice because we rely on metaphors and other shared experience when we speak to others.

Answer 2

No, because we can always at least describe its components, even if we can only provide limited descriptions of each of the known components.

I generally agree with Bertrand Russell's opinion on this general question. There are those that there is knowledge that can not be expressed in words: Russell and I disagree. But I think that there are sometimes things which we experience that we feel that we can not due justice in our descriptions. And we must bear in mind that in descriptions we are simply giving names, and we often times speak aproximatly. And we fit things into a classification of things.

Consider understanding is the spectrum between knowledge and experience.

Also consider when we name something, say "tree" we transcendentally make a judgement that rock is "not tree", river is "not tree", cloud is "not tree", ect... Otherwise it would not be knowledge, and then we would have to ask why is there speach. There can not be speach without knowledge.

In this short answer I have not dealt with matters more about experience.

Answer 3

It is really no secret that some things cant be expressed in words. In fact everything that you think of is just in relation to something else. You could never get it by itself. Words and colors and everything go along with the meaning you attach to them, and everyones meaning may be different. The only way you can describe something is to link it to other things, and in that light nothing really exist except in relation to something else. So if you cant relate it you do not have the bounds to express it. We may never know which things we cant describe because it will just be a passing feeling, never anything firm enough to grasp.

Answer 4

If there isn't anything we can compare it too, doesn't that mean we can't even understand it? Can't grasp it, so to say? Maybe it does exist but we are just unaware of it because we have nothing in our limited little heads that it can be compared to. However, there could be something that our language is unable to describe (there aren't words for it)...

Answer 5

You will always be able to describe things that you can taste, touch, smell, see, and hear

but there are somethings which sometimes can not be described with words for instance love or some type of emotions and feelings

Answer 6

Have you not heard that the universe is made up of 90% dark matter. In other words the Scientists do not even know what the universe is made up of. The Physical is extremely small.

Answer 7

That is the argument for a deity or god.

They are so overwhelming to the human brain that we cannot comprehend it.

Think of technological advances - 100 years ago, human beings could not even comprhend microcomputers and technology - it simply was "impossible."

Answer 8

There is nothing to compare the Essence of God we all carry inside , our selves and where we have the reedom to chooseour good or bad side.

Answer 9

You say "describe in some way" rather than "completely". If there were something completely undescribable, you could partially describe it by saying that it is "completely undescribable". Oops-I guess it wasn't completely undescribable after all. So: No.

Answer 10

Your question is like saying, "If a tree falls in the woods and there is no one to hear it, does the sound exist?"