A Vacation to Think Inexpressible Thoughts by Orlando Bartro
Once upon a time on a vacation in a faraway pond, a duck and a goose had a chance to think.
They thought and thought.
Then they discussed how to understand reality.
Here is what they said:
DUCK: You see, Goose, I take reality to be a kind of book that we’re to interpret. This book has different sections. When appropriate, we use reason and science to interpret a section, but for other sections we use intuition, aesthetic pattern matching, and many other methods. You must use all methods of thought to approach a full understanding of reality.
GOOSE: And should I use astrology and telepathy to understand reality, too? I’d say, “No!” But I’ll agree with you to an extent. Science and reason are too limiting. We must use language, too. And something outside language. For example, in Plato’s Republic, Socrates shows repeatedly that our intuitions about justice don’t reduce to a definition. Following Wittgenstein, I’ll claim that Socrates can never find an adequate definition for justice because words are defined with other words. We can only speak approximately about what we want to say. That’s why Socrates always finds an exception that fits with our intuitions about justice but not with a definition. This implies that our intuitions escape the boundaries of words. And mathematics is made with words. A number is a word, a specialized word, but a word, nevertheless. I wouldn’t want to limit my thoughts only to mathematics and science because that would limit my thoughts to language. I think I can think outside the boundaries of any sentence or equation.
DUCK: You think you can think inexpressible thoughts?
GOOSE: Yes, Duck, I think I can.
* Orlando Bartro is the author of Toward Two Words, a comical & surreal novel about a man who finds yet another woman he never knew, usually available at Amazon for $4.91.