Of the Month New Work on Ineffability

Silvia Jonas has written an important and lucid book about a ‘notoriously elusive’ topic ‘that has baffled philosophical minds for over two thousand years’ (p. 1). Yet the rise of new philosophical standards, focussed on analytical rigour, logical stringency, and scientific mindedness, has allowed the topic of ineffability, which, by definition, deals with what is beyond linguistic grasp, to become a ‘nonissue in contemporary philosophy’ (p. 1). Jonas deploys impressive analytical rigour and clarity of expression, in rare combination, to address the central question: ‘What does ineffability consist in metaphysically?’ (p. 2). While questions concerning ineffability continue to arise in various (sometimes very technical) philosophical contexts, most notably, for readers of this journal, in philosophy of religion, there has been ‘virtually no systematic, context-independent examination of the metaphysics ineffability itself’—until now. Furthermore, Jonas’s methodological aim is to combine ‘“analytical” rigour with the “continental” ambition of providing a comprehensive explanation of ineffability’ (p. 2). Such an explanation is intended to make the concept of ineffability ‘tangible and ready for use’, ripe for reapplication across various philosophical contexts, the most puzzling (and therefore interesting) of which are taken to be aesthetic and religious contexts, as well as that of philosophy itself (pp. 1, 6–9). An introductory chapter provides a succinct overview of the topic, and of Jonas’s motivations for addressing it. Here, Jonas distinguishes mundane, trivial cases of ineffability from ones that are more ‘rare’ and ‘meaningful’ (p. 3). As she explains, ‘Everyone experiences moments of speechlessness. Only sometimes, though, does such ineffability feel significant’ (p. 2). It is this important distinction that lies behind the book’s interest in the kind of ineffability in play in aesthetic, religious, and philosophical contexts, rather than the more trivial kind that results, for example, when a person is gagged (p. 5). Like the present author, Jonas is interested in the ineffable in principle (p. 4). Her introduction provides a helpful brief history of ineffability, which ranges from Laozi and Plotinus to Wittgenstein, Heidegger, and Adorno, and ends with an outline of the structure of the book as a whole. Chapter 2 thoroughly sets out the terminology and provides a definition of ineffability that rules out the trivial, philosophically uninteresting cases: