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Bocheński on divine ineffability

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Abstract

Section 11 of Józef Bocheński’s The Logic of religion (1965), is devoted to the question of divine ineffability: Is it possible to speak of God? Bocheński shows that even if the assertion of God’s ineffability is not contradictory, it can be contested. Bocheński seems to think ineffabilism is based primarily on a confusion, viz., on the claim that faith is dependent on an extraordinary experience, and it is this extraordinary experience which is supposed to be ineffable. The ineffabilist is unable to say who he is addressing in his prayers and praises so long as he maintains that nothing can be said of Him to whom they are addressed. Any meaningful language is minimally referential, whether the ineffabilist likes it or not. This could be the basis for a critique of Jean-Luc Marion’s account of apophatism. This criticism shows the fecundity of Bocheński’s account of ineffability.

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Notes

  1. Which runs in the opposite direction of the perspective developed by Salamucha, Drewnowski and Bocheński (Kraków Circle). On this topic see Pouivet (2006, 2009, 2011).

  2. “The second aporia falls within the metaphysical horizon, denying that we can or should ever have recourse to the concept of “God” and as such to one essence among others (however privileged it may happen to be). Breaking the link between “God” and his concept, thus with any essence generally, it releases it from inclusion within logic, and thus possibly from within onto-theo-logy. It thus recovers the way of apophasis, that is to say, the critical moment that mystical theology puts on any ascent toward the Name that is beyond every name.”

  3. See also Pouivet (2013).

References

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  1. Laboratoire d’Histoire des Sciences et de Philosophie, Archives Poincaré, Université de Lorraine/Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 91, Avenue de la Libération, 54000, Nancy, France

    Roger Pouivet

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  1. Roger Pouivet
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Correspondence to Roger Pouivet.

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Pouivet, R. Bocheński on divine ineffability. Stud East Eur Thought 65, 43–51 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-013-9183-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-013-9183-9

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