Our philosophy is grounded in only half a language, in which the power of discourse is deployed while the strength of listening is ignored. We inhabit a culture that knows how to speak but not how to listen; so we mistake warring monologues for genuine dialogue.Western philosophies have consistently endowed expressive language with the power of communication, reducing the unspeaking, non-expressive Other to a void, a negation. In this remarkable book Gemma Corradi Fiumara redresses the balance by looking at the other side of language — listening. Synthesizing the insights of Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Gadamer, among many others, she puts forward a powerful argument for the replacement of .the silent silence of Western thought with the rich openness of an authentic listening.
