ABSTRACT
Chapter 1: No mere void, silence may protect, deny, attack, or give consent. One may be reduced to silence, either by humiliation or out of failure to find the right word. One may be struck silent by art, by holiness, by outrageousness. Persons or groups may find themselves silenced through acts of familial, cultural, or political domination, even by violence. Probably every human being has some experiences with silence, with silencing others, or having been silenced. This chapter considers the widely divergent meanings of silence for three twentieth–century French philosophers: Jean–Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau–Ponty, and Emmanuel Levinas. Then it examines the unconscionable silence of professional psychologists while our colleagues participated in the George W. Bush torture program, and reasons why this silence occurred.
