What We Cannot Say

Maimonides was a twelfth-century Jewish physician, jurist and philosopher, born in Córdoba and later living in Egypt. His Guide for the Perplexed was written for readers troubled by apparent conflicts between faith and philosophy.

He argued that God is so unlike creatures that our ordinary words cannot describe God as they describe a table. If we say God is wise, we risk imagining wisdom like ours. So he favored a negative way: say what God is not, such as not limited and not changing, and speak positively only of what God does, not of what God is.

Whatever one thinks of the theology, the method is useful. When a subject outruns our words, listing what it is not can keep us from false confidence.

The sculptor’s chips

A sculptor is asked what the statue will look like. She says she cannot describe it yet, but she can tell you what it will not be: not a copy, not smaller than a person and not painted.

Each chip of stone removed narrows the guess. The client says he feels he knows the statue better now than when he heard a confident description that proved wrong.

Try this today Pick something hard to describe and list three things it is not, before saying anything it is.