Apophatic naming
Apophatic naming, or negative naming, is the attempt to call a thing by so many names that its essential nature transcends all of them. It’s a practice “as old as philosophy itself,”1 and a central element of mysticism and early Christian thought.
I like the turn of phrase in this one: the Mystical Languages of Unsaying. Apophasis, which literally means “speaking away,” embraces the impossibility of naming something that is ineffable by continually turning back upon its own propositions and names.
If you broaden it to that definition, “unsaying,” it’s very Tao Te Ching. Saying by unsaying. Saying by not saying. The mystical paradox at the heart of Lao Tzu.
Wikipedia: Apophatic Theology (I like that there’s a redirect in case you’re looking for the “Via Negativa” episode of The X-Files instead, lol) ↩︎