In contemporary western society, and indeed globally, we are experiencing a tidal wave of sound and speech, together with relentless pressure for personal expression. However, much of this is noise rather than genuine communication. Such excess indicates a misunderstanding about what expression and dialogue should achieve for humanity. As a result, discourse becomes superficial or even a monologue in which listening is replaced by hearing.  

In any encounter each person needs time for personal reflection to contemplate and absorb its lessons and to renew the dialogue more effectively. An encounter should not be an act of violence which forces the absence of speech or insists on speech without reflection, which prevents other possibilities of meaning emerging. The problem that faces us all is how to live with some mysteries without losing the aim of reaching understanding. But this is, after all, what we should consider as learning.

Silence helps us to experience uncertainty and doubt, and the suspension between knowing and unknowing. Our experience does not need to be constantly described, explained, or analysed for it to make sense. In this sense, silence may indicate respect for ways of establishing contact with the world other than through speech or through judgements. Silence, solitude and contemplation are not the opposites of expression, of community, or of speech. Instead, they are examples of belonging to the world.

Zimmermann, A. C., & Morgan, W. J. (2016). A Time for Silence? Its Possibilities for Dialogue and for Reflective Learning. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 35(4), 399-413.

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