Ineffability

To say something that it is " unutterable " mean that cannot or does not have, for prevalent reasons, being expressed with words. This word is generally used to express a feeling, a concept or an aspect of the existence which is too large to be described in an adequate way by words, or which cannot inhéremment be expressed in a human language dualistic symbolic system, but can only be known in an internal way by the individuals.

In the Zen, one often says (by analogy) that the finger can point towards the moon, but is not the moon; same manner, the words and the actions can indicate what is unutterable but cannot make known it with someone else.

In modern philosophy, Jankélévitch explored the topic of ineffability while insisting on the unutterable character of the most essential things: poetry, the music, the love, freedom, etc It thus worked out an esthetics and a metaphysics of the unutterable one.

See too

Noumène

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