Ineffability and its Metaphysics

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.

• ineffability
• ineffable
• inexpressibility
• inexpressible
• unspeakable
• unsayable
• expressibility
• limits of expression
• limits of language
• metaphysics
• ineffable truths
• religion
• truth

"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

"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

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.

Policies and ethics