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(2017) Contemporary debates in negative theology and philosophy, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Is there a logic of the ineffable? or, how is it possible to talk about the unsayable?
Stephen R. Palmquist
pp. 71-80
This chapter defends a single, fixed, definite answer to the question: Is there a logic that governs the unsayable? The proposed answer is: "Yes, and no. Or yes-but-not-yes. And/or yes-no." Each component of this answer is examined and used to generate three laws of what Palmquist terms 'synthetic logic", which correspond directly to the laws of classical (Aristotelian) logic: the law of contradiction ("A = −A"), the law of non-identity ("A ≠ A"), and the law of the included middle ("−(Av-A)"). Ultimately, Palmquist concludes by arguing that we can talk about the unsayable only by assuming that propositions constructed in accordance with these three alternative logical laws can be meaningful.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-65900-8_6
Full citation:
Palmquist, S. R. (2017)., Is there a logic of the ineffable? or, how is it possible to talk about the unsayable?, in N. Brown & J. A. Simmons (eds.), Contemporary debates in negative theology and philosophy, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 71-80.
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