History of Philosophy Workshop: Emmanuel Bermon, “‘Et uae tacentibus de te quoniam loquaces muti sunt’ (Conf. I, 4, 4): Augustine and Wittgenstein on the duty of speaking about what is ineffable”

Please join us as we continue our lunchtime history of philosophy workshops! Each meeting will consist of a presentation by a graduate student or faculty on a project that they are working on in the history of philosophy, followed by a period of comments/questions from the other participants. The workshop is designed to give grad students and faculty the opportunity to develop ideas and receive helpful feedback on projects/papers in a friendly and low stakes environment. 

This week's presenter is visiting grant recipient Emmanuel Bermon. His talk is titled “‘Et uae tacentibus de te quoniam loquaces muti sunt’ (Conf. I, 4, 4): Augustine and Wittgenstein on the duty of speaking about what is ineffable” (abstract below).

Lunch is provided with sign-up! For more information, please email Dylan MacFarlane. We hope to see you there!

Abstract: The aim of the talk is to examine what can justify some attempts to speak about what is ineffable, although they involve something impossible. I will refer to two philosophers: Augustine and Wittgenstein. The way they draw the limit between what can be said and what cannot be said are quite different. Nevertheless, both authors claim that there is something which escapes our discourse under its transcendence – God for Augustine, the “mystical” for Wittgenstein –, so that we cannot say anything meaningful about it, and yet we must endeavor to speak about it all the same.

Originally published at historyofphilosophy.nd.edu. Please check their event page for details, since this event section may not reflect any changes to the event.