2004
Volume 58, Issue 3
  • ISSN: 0165-8204
  • E-ISSN: 2667-1573

Abstract

Abstract

Whereas spoken discourse dominated throughout classical antiquity, the theme of silence gained philosophical significance in the first centuries CE. This article shows that keeping silent is celebrated as a philosophical virtue and the taciturn philosopher becomes a trope in literature of this period. I discuss for what reasons taciturnity became philosophically meaningful by examining several texts in which philosophers advocate silence. In each of these texts, the choice to remain silent is contrasted with speech. Spoken language was distrusted because it could be thoughtless, rampant, and even dangerous. The article starts with Plutarch’s , in which incessant talking is seen as a philosophical problem, whereas silence is seen as a precondition for philosophizing, for it enables listening. Subsequently, I show how the renewed interest in the silence cult of the Pythagoreans emphasized the value of silence as a way to practice self-control. Lastly, I argue that silence became so associated with philosophy that the Neopythagoreans Apollonius of Tyana and Secundus the Silent owe their names as philosophers to their prolonged silences only. For all these philosophers, silence is not a defect, but a deliberate choice to show their philosophical attitude, to keep outsiders out, and to make a statement.

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