The Fate of the Excluded Middle Between Truth and Nescience. Mantras and other Senseless Truths in Indian and Western Philosophies

Abstract

In this paper we will focus on characteristics of language when a primordial truth is posited. We suggest that such a claim to a pristine origination necessarily implies an articulation of a corresponding pervasive nescience, which modifies/distorts the totality of all possible linguistic expressions. To explore such a pattern, we employ a method which maps key-concepts according to their contextual application, divided in two conceptual domains, the domain of the primordial truth, and that of its absence; each of them has to reflect and exclude the other. It is our view that these dependent exclusions show the problem attached any attempt to reconcile the delineated domains. We outline some possible ways to indicate truth, and we conclude our paper by pointing to the Indian use of mantras, which can be charaterised as self-validating, necessary and essentially meaningless. This reveals a fundamental principle of originary speech beyond the scope of speakers, contents and communicative purposes.