Language and Understanding

“Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”

-Ludwig Wittgenstein

Some things are just too complicated for words. I’m fascinated by this complexity. We can conceive of it, yet never hope of coming up with an answer. This topic got me thinking about the limits of our understanding and made me wonder if there were questions we cannot even dream of posing. Just as a dog cannot begin to understand the question, “what is justice,” there may be similar questions far beyond human capabilities of understanding.

Most of philosophy is us trying to grapple with the ideas that we don’t have the capability to intuitively understand. As Socrates said, “All I know is that I know nothing.” Lots of the things that we do seem to intuitively understand rest on assumptions we take to be true without much second thought. The question, “1+1=?” is simple for us since we are able to intuitively understand numbers. Regarding more complex topics, we’re unique in our ability to recognize them and formulate questions about them, even if the answers prove elusive. Beauty, for example, is a universally recognized concept, yet no one can explain why it occurs or what makes something beautiful. Though a housefly may not perceive beauty, humans seemingly can. This leads us to think that a super-intelligent alien species could understand concepts like beauty and justice as we understand rudimentary arithmetic and possibly access questions completely unknown to us, much like we’re able to access the question of justice inaccessible to a dog.

I AI-designed the following diagram to illustrate different categories 

Explainable - “What did you do today?”

In the part of the diagram labeled “Explainable” are ideas a person is individually capable of articulating. These ideas could range from as simple as “I went on a walk and saw my friend today” to intricate explanations of particle physics. As a person becomes more knowledgeable and linguistically talented, the size of their Explainable circle increases. 

Known - “How do chemical reactions work?”

“Known” represents the collective knowledge of humanity. As the Explainable circle grows, it approaches the Known circle. If a person were able to learn everything there is to learn, the two circles would be the same size.

Complex - “Why is there something rather than nothing”

These are the accessible yet impossible to answer questions. We universally agree the questions exist, but no amount of mental gymnastics seems to get us closer to an answer. 

Inconceivable - “8f;zxcv5b;nmkl?”

Who knows what’s here!