Ineffability and its Metaphysics: The Unspeakable in Art, Religion, and Philosophy

by Silvia Jonas

Overview

This book offers an analytically rigorous and systematic discussion of possible ways of making metaphysical sense of ineffability. Silvia Jonas defends the idea that ineffable insights as found in aesthetic, religious, and philosophical contexts are best understood in terms of self-acquaintance, a particular kind of non-propositional knowledge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349954247
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	03/31/2018
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2016
Pages:	226
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Silvia Jonas is a Polonsky Postdoctoral Fellow at The Van Leer Institute and a Visiting Researcher at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. She completed her PhD at Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and holds a BPhil in Philosophy from the University of Oxford as well as an MLitt in Philosophy from the University of St. Andrews, UK.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
1.1 Getting a Grip on the Topic
1.2 The Relevant Cases
1.3 A Brief History of Ineffability
1.4 Four Ways of Predicate Application
1.5 Structure of the Book

2.Terminology
2.1 Content
2.2 Representations
2.3 Experience
2.4 Truth and Truth-Bearers
2.5 Impressibility and Ineffability

3.Ineffable Properties and Objects
3.1 Why Ineffable Properties and Objects?
3.2 The Absolute
3.3 Haecceities
3.4 Bare Particulars

4.Ineffable Propositions
4.1 Why Ineffable Propositions?
4.2 Inaccessibility
4.3 Semantic Paradoxes
4.4 Unformulable Mathematical Propositions
4.5 Excess Propositions
4.6 Perspective Propositions

5.Ineffable Content
5.1 Why Ineffable Content?
5.2 Non-Conceptual Concept in Perception
5.3 The Contents of Aesthetic Experience
5.4 The Contents of Religious Experience

6.Ineffable Knowledge I
6.1 Why Ineffable Knowledge?
6.2 Objective Ineffable Knowledge
6.3 Knowledge-How
6.4 Basic Logical Knowledge
6.5 Non-Representational Knowledge

7.Ineffable Knowledge II
7.1 Subjective Ineffable Knowledge
7.2 Indexical Knowledge
7.3 Phenomenal Knowledge
7.4 Self-Acquaintance

8.Conclusion

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A rare combination of first-rate analytical philosophy with a grand metaphysical ambition." - Michael Inwood, University of Oxford, UK

"A clear and lucid investigation of a notoriously difficult topic, bringing together an impressive range of contemporary scholarship and probing in places deeper than existing literature." - Edward Kanterian, University of Kent, USA

Editorial Reviews

"A rare combination of first-rate analytical philosophy with a grand metaphysical ambition." - Michael Inwood, University of Oxford, UK

"A clear and lucid investigation of a notoriously difficult topic, bringing together an impressive range of contemporary scholarship and probing in places deeper than existing literature." - Edward Kanterian, University of Kent, USA

From the Publisher