Metaphor and the Ineffable

As Arendt says, metaphor is the bridge between thought and the world of appearances, and those metaphors that we use do take from one of our five bodily senses to create themselves. But Arendt also makes the point that if we were to try and think about the ineffable, we find ourselves at a loss as to how to go about doing so. Mainly because of the fact that, because the ineffable is not rooted in the world of appearances, we have no metaphors with which to consider it. As such, all we really have is a "feeling" of it, an occasional burst of inspiration that leaves us as soon as we attempt to pin it down. Because our language, the words we use to actualize thought and make it concrete in our minds, does not have words with which to make the ineffable realized in or connected to the world of appearances, such thoughts are unable to be considered or spoken aloud. Based on such evidence, it could be entirely possible to proclaim the ineffable does not exist at all. And yet, we do still have that sense from time to time, those moments of inspiration or those feelings of sudden understanding, that do hint that the ineffable is out there. In my personal experience, such things usually are accompanied by that sensation you get when you have a word on the tip of your tongue, and just can't remember what it is. You know it's there, but it just refuses to be said or even understood sometimes. So I suppose the only consideration then is to figure out how to quantify it, either without using language, or by inventing new language to do so.