More on the principle of identity

Some people suggest this is a quirk of language. They insists that such statement as "I can't speak a word in English" are only self-defeating because one is speaking English. One could use French and avoid the difficulty. They add that one can make a metastatement in even the same language that avoids this difficulty. That is they posit a class statements about statements (called metastatements about the real world. These metastatements are supposedly exempt from being self-defeating. Thus,one who says, "No statements about God are descriptive," is supposedly not making a descriptive statement about but rather the statements that can be made of God.

It is true that a statement in French saying that one cannot speak English is not self-defeating. However, a statement in French affirming that one cannot speak a word in French is self-defeating.

The statement maneuver does not avoid the trap of self-destruction. For statements about statements that affirm something about reality are indirectly statements about reality.

For example, if one says, "I am not making a statement about reality when I say that statements cannot be made about reality" he is making a statement about reality. It is the most radical kind of statement that can be made about reality, since, it prohibits all other statements about reality. Thus the statement "Something exists" cannot be denied without affirming that something does exist (e.g., the maker of that statement).