Is there something "unsayable"?

Question

By this I mean: let us imagine that there is something, therefore an existing entity, but we just not have the enough ability (linguistic, psichological, pragmatical, etc...) to "say" that thing; we can't express it by words, by propositions.

Is there something that we cannot say?

Say which ones, if yes. Say why not, if no!


Tnx,

ie - B r a z i l

Answer 1

no. there is not.
use {X}.
X is unknown.and {X1,X2,X3,....] is a set of unknown.
you have a good tool to SAY everything and {NOTHING}.
but
is it enough?
of course not.

Answer 2

there are many time-hallowed philosophical traditions that deal with this kind of thing. Many European philosophers have claimed that if a thing cannot be put into words it cannot have any part in reality, since reality is created by consensus and if something can't be shared with other people it is not a part of reality.
The beginning of the Bible gives primacy to the Word; before there could be anything else there had to be the word of God. It's no mistake that the Bible starts out by saying "In the beginning was the word". All language that has ever been has flowed from God, and there are religious sects who believe that it is the job of human beings to list all the names of God (any word is just another name for God). Once all possible permutations of the name of God have been spoken then the Word of God will have been fulfilled and the universe will come to an end. There is a hebrew expression which refers to the 9 billion names of God, and they have had scholars who have been at work counting them for thousands of years.
I wonder if there are more than 9 billion yet?
There is also another jewish tradition which is called negative theology. Since it is impossible to have direct knowledge of God the only thing we can hope to do is to say what God is not. God is not me...God is not you...God is not the eggs in my refrigerator...and so on, and once you have learned enough about the world and all the things that God is not, in some way you can hope that it brings you closer to knowing Him.
Enlightenment thinking in Europe believed that each thing had a phenomenal and a noumenal existence; the phenomena of a thing are the ways it is expressed and percived by our senses, the noumena is the thing in itself. Most thinkers agreed that it its impossible to know a thing in itself; you cannot even know yourself on a noumenal level, so all we can do is try to understand things through their phenomenology. There is a philosophy of knowledge developed from this which is still popular today in philosophy and psychology departments, though it has changed quite a bit - it's called phenomenology, btw)
An ancient Islamic form of study that has become quite important in the west as well is called hermaneutics. It postulates that all language is simply a metaphor. Words are only imperfect approxiamtions and in reality no two things are ever exactly alike anyway. So the idea is that we can elaborate these metaphors and gain more knowledge of things through what we are able to know. The imperative is that we must keep talking and discussing and debating and speaking or we will simply unleash destructive forces.
Thses are just a few examples of what you're talking about. There are many many more. It is an interesting and fertile subject for examining how new thoughts are possible. Any human, even a fundamentalist christian or a materialist scientist, has to admit that most of the universe is completely unknown to us and we must have effective ways of ensuring that we don't start to feel like we've got all the answers. That makes for trouble and bad decisions.
And anythng we don't know is something we can't say.
Kurt Cobain said it in his song "serve the servants"; "there is nothing I can say that I haven't thought before"
the ancient Greek philosopher Plato actually claimed that you can't learn anything that you don't already know. It sounds a little strange to say it, but he is right (don't say you don't agree until you've read his argument; it's a good one). The question of how we move from a state of not knowing a thing (or thinking we don't know a thing) to a state of knowing a thing and having words for it is one of the greatest mysteries of the human mind and language.
I could just keep going on and coming up with other examples, but I'll leave you to contemplate the unknown mysteries of existence for now.

Answer 3

In theology, God is supposedly ineffable. But this statement must be qualified since Christians, Muslims and Jews all believe that we can say something about God. Hence, there is a sense in which God is ineffable: God is not totally "unsayable."

The Bible also speaks of certain emotions as being "ineffable" (e.g., joy) and the apostle Paul refers to an "unspeakable" experience he had in the third heaven. On the other hand, I am reminded of Ludwig Wittgenstein's observation: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."

Answer 4

I don't think there is anything "unsayable". We may not be able to express to the 100th degree what we are feeling or thinking, but we can express everything to some degree.

Answer 5

If we can't say the word that most aptly describes the entity because we have no comprehension of it, I would say that that's god, Truth, and death. We think we have a good idea of what it's all about, but really nobody does.

Answer 6

The nature of God. I have been trying all my life to give account for this but I simply can't. When I leave aside my linguistic ability it is easy for me to make contact with it, but once I try to reason about it, it simply disappears. This is, indeed, quite frustrating because it is clear to me what it is what needs to be said, but when I try to say it everything seems to go wrong. Apart from that, you can say anything you like.

Answer 7

yes, there is somethings that can not be put into words ( the unsay able)..... and that would be (FEELINGS) . For no one can truly explain in the way ,that 'ONE' , fathoms (ie) as in the depths of, a certain feelin'. (right?) of coruse.
shyllow144

Answer 8

if there is anything 'unsayable'... it is also (as yet) unrealized.

i sincerely doubt we (humans) have the capability to know of a thing -- and lack the ability to 'say' it.

Answer 9

Emotions can be difficult to express, like seeing something so beautiful that words fail to describe the beauty or what you felt when you saw it. Like a sense maybe of something long lost or forgotten...where words fall short.

Answer 10

can anyone explain how the human heart can beat non-stop for 70 years without service? I think this has never been researched with success....its an unknown..... what is the explanation for this. other mechanics have to stop for some sort of service motor engines, machines of any sort.

Answer 11

Some ideas must be demonstrated, rather than spoken about, to be understood.