Listening, Thinking, Being: Toward an Ethics of Attunement

Although  listening is central to human interaction, its importance is often  ignored. In the rush to speak and be heard, it is easy to neglect  listening and disregard its significance as a way of being with others  and the world. Drawing upon insights from phenomenology, linguistics,  philosophy of communication, and ethics, Listening, Thinking, Being is both an invitation and an intervention meant to turn much of what  readers know, or think they know, about language, communication, and  listening inside out. It is not about how to be a good listener or the  numerous pitfalls that stem from the failure to listen. Rather, the  purpose of the book is, first, to make readers aware of the value and  importance of listening as a fundamental human ability inextricably  connected with language and thought; second, to alert readers to the  complexity of listening from personal, cultural, and philosophical  perspectives; and third, to offer readers a way to think of listening as  a mode of communicative action by which humans create and abide in the  world. Lisbeth Lipari brings together historical, literary,  intercultural, scientific, musical, and philosophical perspectives, as  well as a range of her own personal experiences, to produce this highly  readable analysis of how “the human experience of being as an ethical  relation with others . . . is enacted by means of listening.”