[lit-ideas] "Darueber muss man schweigen"
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 10 Apr 2004 11:14:17 EDT
In a message dated 4/10/2004 9:13:13 AM Eastern Standard Time,
JulieReneB@xxxxxxx writes:
<<'...daruber muB mann schweigen'>>
....has a nice ring to it ....but, er, what does it mean? I'd hate to use it
inappropriately....
'Schweigen' is one of those German words that have no exact English
translation. It means 'consign to silence', but there is no mention of
'silence' is
'schweigen'. It can mean 'silence' (as in 'Silence the Dogs'). I don't know if
there is a word in English which has the same root, 'schweig-'.
It occurs in §7 of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus: "those
things about which you can not speak, those things you must consign to silence".
We were discussing recently on this forum if that was a tautology. For R.
Paul it's a 'moral maxim', rather -- and contingent at that.
I still think it's kind of tautological in that I have not been able to find
_one single_ case to refute Wittgesntein's §7. Suppose 'microbiology'. There
are things about microbiology I cannot say much about, but I don't think I
_must_ consign those things to silence. I can always learn, for example...
Cheers,
JL
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