A hasidic story says that the number of words we may say in our lifetime is limited. That is why the sages recommend to weigh each word. They don’t say what happens when one finally runs out of words.
I wrote this cartoon while following a discussion among philosophers. I was thinking more along the famous Ludwig Wittgenstein-quote “the limits of my language are the limits of my world”. Sometimes our inability to say what we actually want to say is more than just yet another limit. That’s what I had in mind when drawing. But the cartoon sort of seems to fit the hassidic tale just as well.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Christopher 08.21.07 at 7:44 pm
Brings back the fine and not so fine memories of this years seminar : the fine ones reduced to the simple fact that this was the only Seminar worthy of the name … :-))
Happy to have you back.
Christopher
indeterminacy 08.22.07 at 8:03 am
Better in this case to use sign language, no?
Honza 08.22.07 at 6:42 pm
You’ve done it again. Welcome back.
Rick 08.23.07 at 2:34 pm
Pretty good. It seems to be a fact that one is able to think within the limits of his or her vocabulary. So we tend to judge people’s intelligence according to their utterances. This can be misleading. As soon as they have the chance to express themselves in some other way they are experts in, e.g. through music, we might find out that they are completely different, richer personalities. I remember a moment I came to Germany and, with my limited German, I tried to speak to an official. He made me understand that I am - in his eyes - a stupid immigrant. As I switched to English, which he was supposed to speak in his position, the roles were changed immediately. I enjoyed it!