The positivists have a simple solution: the world must be divided into that which we can say clearly and the rest, which we had better pass over in silence. But can anyone conceive of a more pointless philosophy, seeing that what we can say clearly amounts to next to nothing? If we omitted all that is unclear, we would probably be left completely uninteresting and trivial tautologies.

Summary

This quote criticizes the positivist philosophy that suggests only clear and verifiable statements hold value, dismissing the rest as inconsequential and not worth discussing. The speaker finds this approach futile, as they argue that the scope of what can be clearly expressed is vastly limited. They suggest that eliminating all unclear statements would result in an uninteresting collection of redundant and self-evident truths, thereby rendering the philosophy pointless. This quote challenges the notion that meaningful and profound ideas can be fully captured within the boundaries of clear language.

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