When Words Fail

Ineffability is understood as a failure to put thoughts into words in this thesis. The failure is always embodied in three situations:unspeakability, inexhaustibility and unreportability. Ineffability as a fact in human language appears whenever we utter even a single word, bringing about obstacles and perplexity for our daily communication and thought expressing. Ineffability appears as a paradox, since it is still a product of language and has been and being talked about at all times and in all over the world. However, human language is distinguished from animal language by its ineffability which gives transcendence to human life, because being beyond words means being beyond the world.Except the Introduction, this thesis is divided into two parts according to the two worlds or levels, the effable and the ineffable, generated by language. The first part titled "Encountering Ineffability" aims to draw a boundary between the effable and the ineffable, then categorize the ineffable and clarify its generating mechanisms. The second part titled "After Ineffability" is an attempt to approach the area of Dao, or the world beyond words with the vehicle of words.Chapter One briefly introduces the background, aim, meaning, scope and framework of this research. It also gives a literature review both home and abroad.Chapter Two clarifies the concepts of "zhi (knowledge)","dao (saying)","zhidao (effability)","buzhidao (ineffability)" and analyzes the relationship between knowledge, language and the world.Chapter Three traces the history of "ineffability" both in the West and China, describing how people were frustrated by language and their creditable effort to break through the limit of language.Chapter Four makes categorization of ineffability. First, it criticizes the current categorizations (two by Andre Kukla and one by Liang Ruiqing). After our modification, we come up with a new one. We categorize the ineffable into three groups: unspeakability which means no word can be produced in a special situation, inexhaustibility which means an inexhaustible amount of words should be produced to describe a fact, and unreportability which means the truth of a proposition can only be achieved when the proposition remains unspoken of. Unspeakability can be subclassified into the subjective unspeakability, the unspeakability as background, the unspeakability due to visual angle, and the unspeakability of logical form. The inexhaustibility can also be subclassified into the physical inexhaustibility and the metaphysical inexhaustibility.Chapter Five probes into the generating mechanisms of ineffability. First, it is due to the reflective feature of human language, which means only with language can we tell there is something we cannot express with language. Second, the presence of a word needs a background without a word. Third, Speaking contains a visual angle, thus speaking this and from this point is usually at the cost of speaking that and from that point. Fourth, language cannot refer to its own logical form which "shows" itself in language. Fifth, ineffability also results from the asymmetry of private and public experience, because the absence of common experience leaves a gap between symbol and object. Sixth, the physical and the metaphysical are two levels and language can only work within the physical level. In this section, a comparison is made between the dichotomies of the effable and ineffable by early Wittgenstein and "Dad" and "Qi" by the Daoists. This comparison manifests that unlike early Wittgenstein the Daoists never divide the world into two parts (the effable and ineffable), because "Dao" and "Qi" coexist in one world as different levels which are interchangeable and interdependent each other. Based on this understanding of "Dao" and "Qi", Chinese philosophy advocates experiencing and practicing, for "Dao" is always embodied in ordinary life. Seventh, the unbreakable law of logic causes the "unreportability" which requires the absolute silence for some propositions. Chapter Six as a summary of the first part based on the categorization and generating mechanisms of ineffability expounded above, tries to tell what kind of things are effable and ineffable. In the second part, we think the ineffability leads human to the area of Dao, thus our question is what kind of ineffability can achieve this? This chapter further categorizes the ineffable according to their relationship with Dao. We divide them into two groups:one is related to the physical world, including the unspeakability as background, the unspeakability due to visual angle, and the unspeakability of logical form; while the other leads to the area of Dao, including the metaphysical inexhaustibility and unreportability. The propositions composed by the latter, though cannot send us into the area of Dao, may lead us to its threshold.The above six chapters constitute the first part of this thesis, and the following five chapters are the second part.Chapter Seven analyzes the ineffable which can lead to Dao. Dao appears in the propositions composed by these kinds of ineffability; however, it defies any explanation by these propositions. The feature of unreportability develops an extreme way to Dao called word abandoning. Abandoning word doesn’t mean the permanent absence of word, or we will have nothing to abandon. Abandoning word means the level of Dao once reached the language as a ladder to it should be removed.Chapter Eight discusses five ways to speak about the unspeakable:Wittgenstein’s "showing", Feng Youlan’s negative way, Daoist way, Zen-buddhist way, and poetic way. Every way above is just like a ladder which cannot enter into the area of Dao, but can lead us to its threshold. Whether at the physical or the metaphysical level, the use of language is based on our practice and experience.Chapter Nine is titled "Ineffability and Chinese Philosophy". After a study of the English and Greek words "philosophy","philosophia" and the Chinese character"哲”,we draw the conclusion that Western philosophy stresses the theoretical system while Chinese philosophy stresses the practice and experience of life. This is due to the prevalence of the conception "wu (void)" in Chinese philosophy, which can only be achieved by keeping completely silent. Chinese philosophy advocates practice and experience instead of words. Li Zehou summarizes this kind of spirit as pragmatic reason and ontology of "qing (emotion)", and Feng Youlan calls it "being transcendental in the worldly life".Chapter Ten is the core of this thesis. We draw the conclusion from the above analysis that language derives from and goes back to experience. Language is prepared for those already ready to understand it, because speaking and listening are both based on the network of public experience, thus we can say understanding can walk as far as language walks which depends on how far practice and experience can walk. Speaking eventually sinks into silence once the happiness is achieved. Through the semantic analysis of the word "happiness", we find that language endows human happiness an ethical dimension, which distinguishes it from animal happiness. Happiness as an ethical reward is a feeling of absolute safety and peace of mind from the oneness with the world. Happiness is the realization of Dao, which resides in the mundane affairs and worldly life.