The Other Side of Language

Our philosophy is grounded in only half a language, in which the power of discourse is deployed and the strength of listening ignored. We are inhabitants of a culture that knows how to speak but not how to listen, so we constantly mistake warring monologues for genuine dialogue. In this remarkable book, Gemma Corradi Fiumara seeks to redress that balance by examining the other side of language - listening. Synthesising the insights of Wittgenstein, Heidegger and Gadamer, among many others, she puts forward a powerful argument for the replacement of the silent' silence of traditional Western thought with the rich openness of an authentic listening.

'The delicate but ... very sure-footed sensibility and psychological penetration of the author ... wins from a thoroughly rigorous philosophical analysis a host of ideas and suggestions for a philosophy of life and even for psychology itself - a rare combination.' - Brian McGuinness

'This vast project shows a rare mastery in the domain of linguistic philosophy and especially in the area of encounter between analytic philosophy and hermeneutics.' - Paul Ricoeur

Gemma Corradi Fiumara took her B.A. degree at Barnard College of Columbia University where she studied as a Fulbright scholar. She is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the Third University of Rome and a full member of the International Psychoanalytical Association. She is the author of Philosophy and Coexistence, The Symbolic Function: Psychoanalysis and the Philosophy of Language, and most recently The Metaphoric Process: Connections between Language and Life (Routledge, 1995).

We are inhabitants of a culture that knows how to speak but not how to listen. Against a tradition that has endorsed the power of discourse, where warring monologues are mistaken for genuine dialogue, Gemma Corradi Fiumara examines and reveals the other side of language - listening.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.