Dialectical tensions of speaking and silence

Abstract

This essay is both conventional and non‐conventional. The function of silence in communication has been addressed in academic journals, so the topic is conventional. This essay makes no attempt to incorporate or extend those articles, with one exception. Such silence is not conventional for essays in academic journals. The deeper attempt to be non‐conventional, however, stems from placing in dialogue form a discussion of the functions of silence with what purports to be an Eastern attitude, specifically that derived from several Chinese texts. Posed in contrast to the Eastern portion, with an “apology” marking a transition, is a purportedly Western, didactic discussion. The intention is both to let the mingling of voices enrich the concept of silence and to test further possibilities for extending the understanding of communication by seeking westward in the East. In doing so, the ancient question of the relation of rhetoric and dialectic recurs.

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