Abstract
One of the conspicuous features of the twentieth-century West was silence. This idea could be supported by examining reflections of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Fritz Mauthner, John Cage, Samuel Beckett, Ihab Hassan, Franz Kafka, Wassily Kandinsky, Jean-Paul Sartre, Virginia Woolf, Wolfgang Iser, Jacques Derrida, and Pierre Macherey. To me, silence is not a mere theory, but rather a phenomenon from which we can get practical benefits. I believe silence is an eye, eye of knowledge. We can broaden our knowledge of the world through silence. To convey the idea that silence is an eye, I have concocted the word slence, where has replaced the letter i and stands for the eye. This means knowledge can enable us to see, thereby acquiring knowledge of, what used to be invisible, and accordingly unknowable. In other words, through silence, we can achieve a certain type of literacy. I substantiate this claim by exploring the Horus myth, Ojo de Dios, John Cage’s 4' 33", the nature of Expressionist paintings, Hinduism, thoughts of Hermes Trismegistus and Ibn al-Arabi, and practices of Mohammad, the prophet of Islam.
Highlights
Knowledge can deepen our understanding and increase the possibility of our success in life
I substantiate this claim by exploring the Horus myth, Ojo de Dios, John Cage’s 4' 33", the nature of Expressionist paintings, Hinduism, thoughts of Hermes Trismegistus and Ibn al-Arabi, and practices of Mohammad, the prophet of Islam
Presenting “a symbolic picture of philosophy in the second half of the twentieth century,” the German philosopher Peter Munz (1921-2006) stated that there was Karl Popper (1902-1994), an Austrian-British philosopher, on one side, who was “determined to amend some flaws in the Enlightenment by explaining that while induction is no road to knowledge, we can still have rational knowledge by making hypotheses which are falsifiable
Summary
Knowledge can deepen our understanding and increase the possibility of our success in life. No human being wants to remain in ignorance. The present article aims to introduce a novel approach to the attainment of knowledge. I believe silence is an eye of knowledge. I stress that we can apply silence to gain knowledge and achieve a particular type of literacy. Of the article, I will first expand on the term silence and the condition of the twentiethcentury West with regard to silence, exploring reflections of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Fritz Mauthner, John Cage, Samuel Beckett, Ihab Hassan, Franz Kafka, Wassily Kandinsky, Jean-Paul Sartre, Virginia Woolf, Wolfgang Iser, Jacques Derrida, and Pierre Macherey. I will elucidate my coinage slence and will substantiate the claim that silence is an eye of knowledge through some relevant examples
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
