/lit/ - Literature

>>10486827
(i think) it's meant to be so, like socrates asking dudes what is virtue; it's a slightly convoluted way to say that language is the limit of inquiry

Silence is a trap. That's why Zen masters used to whack people who were either speaking or silent.

>>10487026

> Silence is a trap

So you're saying silence is gay?

>>10487059
Kekd

One of the reasons it is a remarkable statement is that, contrary to common sense, he is saying there are things we "cannot speak" of. Common sense makes it seem that you can talk of anything, with more or less knowledge of it, of course, but still you can learn how to talk about it. To say in ordinary speech that you cannot talk of something usually means that you don't know enough to say something clever about it. But the idea is that language has certain dead ends imbued in it, there are some situations in which talking about it will produce more things for you to work with and deny what you've encountered. Wittgenstein, as well as other philosophers, point to how these dead ends come about. It's also interesting that he uses "whereof" and "thereof", as if it was really a place (of language) in which one would have no choice but to be silent and that putting into words would only take you elsewhere. He is saying we confuse concrete walls with locked doors.

What is it that we can't speak of
hurr we don't know because we can't speak of it so it effectively doesn't exist
bravooo

>>10487175
The idea of concepts of which one cannot speak is standard in transcendental philosophy

>>10487531
Shouldn't have said "concepts" but you know what I mean

>>10487059

Silence is cool if you run out of words, but it's just escapism and you get 'stuck' in the comfort of silence