Is Silence really just a concept?
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Yes, it's only a concept. Even if your ears can't hear anything it doesn't mean there is no other sound (or vibration) of any kind discernible to any other life form, or even influence the non-living particles those waves run into. Silence is simply our human concept for a lack of discernible noise to us. 1
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It's a concept, yes, but it's not just a concept. Dragons are a concept because we put them into fantasy and we imagine them, but they don't actually exist. Silence, however, is the absence of noise, which is more than a concept, it's a state of noise that is grounded in reality. Saying silence is just a concept is like saying no8se is just a concept. Absence of noise... 1) to whom?, because not every person hears the same, and not every living thing hears the same, 2) do you mean sound waves? Because sound and other waves are constantly rippling all around us even if our ears aren't buzzing, 3) do you mean unpleasant noise?, because one person's mellow music is another's noise. A library room with quiet classical may still be considered silence by some. Silence is more than just a concept. It is a real and provable, tangible, phenomena. It is the auditory experience of being unable to detect any discernible sound. Sound can be described as the ear's sensation of detecting various emitted air pressures. That is, of detecting those molecules of air as they strike your inner ear drum at varying pressures and frequencies. To not do this, is to experience silence. It IS true that it is very rare to experience total and absolute silence while in a wakeful, conscious state, however. But it can be done. Most easily would be with headphones on. Or maybe in a closed closet in a quiet room of a house. Say, at night when you are alone. Sensory deprivation chambers also offer you the experience of total silence. I went into one for a full 45 minutes once, at the UM, as part of a psych study, back in undergrad school. The chamber was also totally devoid of light, and I was floating in saltwater. Sweet. After about thirty minutes the hallucinations often begin! Ever take one of those hearing tests? With the headphones on? When you are supposed to raise your hand, or hit a button the second you detect a sound from the headphones? Well, that part of the test before you hit the button or raise your hand? And thus detect the faintest sound? That's silence, amigos. It's a real deal. Not just a concept. The absence of ANYthing is real. Actually, as real as the detection of anything. It's just that we have evolved so as to spend more time and exude much more effort in detecting and experiencing things, than to NOT detecting them. We evolved this way for survival techniques. Hope this helps. SS 1
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It is if you suffer from tinnitus. Your interesting question is an elaborate version of;- if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around within earshot, does it make a noise? Apparently the answer is no. Insofar that the absence of proof does not mean proof of absence, so absence of noise does not prove silence. The static noise which exists throughout the cosmos has been attributed the residual sound made by the ''big bang'' and is always present. Teenagers and those in their early twenties who possess naturally good hearing can hear this drone like background humming sound until they grow older when their hearing rapidly deteriorates and all is seems to be silent. Canines can hear high pitched noises which humans cannot, nonetheless the sound exists. If you want to experience real silence, visit ''Silent Valley'', in the Mourne Mountains, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is eerily and disturbingly silent. |
