A Hermeneutical Phenomenology of Silence

Silence as a spiritual practice is not a negative phenomenon that cuts off speech, but enables a higher form of speech, i.e. that of ultimate reality. Hermeneutical phenomenology can illuminate this spiritual practice. Hermeneutical phenomenology does not accept the phenomena of consciousness as given, but views them in light of historical-social structures that make phenomenal objects of intentionality possible. Structures of intelligibility can either discover, or cover up phenomena, turning them into appearances that merely announce on the surface what is hidden in the depths. We need to interpret our average everyday understanding, in order to bring the Being of objects fully to disclosure. Without silence, we will perpetuate the average structures of intelligibility that make communication possible, which will function as implicit distortions. I examine silence through hermeneutic phenomenology, showing how silence can give us a more primordial sense of phenomena than mere idle talk.