The Over-Reliance of the Eye and Vision

Using Hearing as a Manner of Detecting Hidden or Concealed Stimuli

Jun 11, 2009

In today's modern technological world people rely heavily on their vision and often neglect their other senses, such as hearing, for decoding and interpreting signs.

Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard states that what may escape the observant eye could be detected by one’s ears. He states that it is often easier to notice a discrepancy between appearance and reality in the tone of a person’s voice.

A person who is lying, deceptive or hiding grief or secrets may be more apt to reveal himself through fluctuations, trembling or intonations of the voice.

The Focus on Visual Stimuli in Today’s Technological World

Most people usually rely on their sense of sight and their main focus or energy is on interpreting and decoding visual stimuli. The terms “I see,” an expression of vision is related to comprehension. “Seeing is believing” is another phrase commonly used expression to emphasize the importance of vision in personal judgments.

Kierkegaard wrote about the society of the past century, but his observations ring even truer in today’s modern technological world. Society's heavy reliance on visual stimulation has reached a climax in the advent of television, video and DVDs and video games. Even the act of reading presupposes the coding of visual intake that is presented to the invisible mental eye and the imagination.

Vision overrides the other senses and one relies heavily on information entering through the eye. Therefore, physical appearance becomes important and it may be manipulated and groomed to create desired effect.

Using Hearing and Other Senses to Interpret the World

There may be various hints and clues “leaking” through the voice, something that only a shrewd listener may detect. Even slips — like the Freudian slip, which reveals inner desires via a symbolic slip of the tongue — are related to sound rather than vision.

It would seem a disadvantage to neglect one’s other senses due to the relevance and importance given to vision.

In fact, the body typically compensates for the loss of one sense, as the other senses become more acute. A blind person’s hearing sense becomes more prominent in his interpretation of the world and this sense takes the place of vision as the primary method of processing incoming information about the world. Similarly, the sense of touch becomes more acute in a blind individual; one is able to read with the fingers, as is the case of Braille. This gives rise to another manner of understanding texts and the world itself.

As Kierkegaard suggests, perhaps it would be best to develop all of one’s senses in order to get a well-rounded message because the eye alone can be easily deceived. To rely on just one sense, while failing to develop the others can be likened to watching a movie without sound — one will miss out on the complete story.

The copyright of the article The Over-Reliance of the Eye and Vision in Self-Awareness is owned by Arash Farzaneh. Permission to republish The Over-Reliance of the Eye and Vision in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.