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Saying the Unsayable: Mystical Experience and Language

Sebastjan Vörös

Sažetak

The article considers whether, and to what extent, mystical experience, which is supposed to be transrational (non-dualist) and therefore ineffable, can be conveyed in language. The article consists of two parts. First, drawing on the Wittgensteinian distinction between “pointing” and “saying”, it is suggested that language not only speaks, but also acts. Mystical utterances are thus not on par with discursive utterances, in that they don’t refer to the mystical, but embody and enact it. Second, different means of expressing the inexpressible are outlined: from silence and bodily act, through evocative non-sense and paradox, to negation and scriptural metaphor. The expressive forms are analysed according to two mutually exclusive criteria, namely according to how consistent they are with the nature of the experience, and how suggestive their internal mechanisms are, i.e. how successful they are in approaching and addressing their recipient. It is suggested that the two criteria are inversely proportional to one another: the more descriptive and suggestive a given form, the less evocative and consistent it is and therefore open to grave misinterpretation.

Ključne riječi

mysticism; mystical experience; language; ineffability; silence; paradox; negation

Hrčak ID:

134455

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/134455

Datum izdavanja:

8.2.2015.

Posjeta: 1.964 *