Obscurantism & The Language of Excess

[Philosophy Now]

Siobhan Lyons tries not to use either to explain what and why they are.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/104/Ob ... _of_Excess

[Terry]

This was a really interesting article that I feel captured the essential dilemma of language and writing: Siobhan Lyons posits that we ought not be intentionally obscure when communicating philosophy, but that literature requires creative obscurity, saying: "The mastery of such enigmatic sentences is that they often evade the analytical grasp of philosophy or other academia, instead becoming art through creative obscurity", and: "To an extent, literature is masquerade."

She also ends on a really profound note: "there is as big a difference between obscure language (mis)communicating good ideas and good language communicating obscure ideas as there is between demolishing language and using language to demolish."

Great use of Rembrandt’s The Holy Family with a Curtain as a metaphor for the uses of obscurity. Really intelligent article.

[Terry]

Interesting article- because I too am sick of the elitist manner in which academics talk. I find this sentence particularly apt: "Often it has been said that language is the instrument of philosophy, but it may be more accurate to say that language is the burden of philosophy. Somewhere in the history of philosophy the poor writing style of certain clever philosophers was falsely interpreted by aspiring philosophers as implying a need to be purposefully obscure. So they were." Many philosophical/academic works would have been more widely read if they were in a readable language. But this article convinces me that obscurity is also necessary.

I like the notion of knowledge and its limitations and that there needs to be a limit to knowledge/exposure in order to make way for imagination and creative thinking. Good use of Wittgenstein and Nietzsche there.

And I agree with the comment: "So obscurity in language can be seen as not always self-defeating, but, ironically, as sometimes illuminating. Moreover, if language were a purely functional tool for communication, we would cease to have literature as we understand it." It makes me think that there are actually instances where obscurity can lead to illumination. I find the term "creative obscurity" with regards to Rembrandt's painting really intriguing. I think it is really difficult to find a happy medium between creativity and explanation/communication.

[Siobhan]

Thanks very much for your comments, Terry. It is indeed quite difficult to balance communication and creativity, which I suppose is why philosophers and academics often lean too far towards complete obscurantism. But I'm glad that you appreciated my point on the significance of creative obscurity. Thanks again.