For Picard, silence is not an absence of sound or a void, but has substance and its own reality — silence has Being.

Evidence

Max Picard’s Silence (Front Porch Republic)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Silence is a positive, self-contained reality rather than mere absence. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 19; Silence is real, as darkness and cold are real; we feel these as positive sensations, not merely negations of something else. — In Praise of Silence; Silence is nothing merely negative; it is not the mere absence of speech, but has a kind of Being of its own. — The Being of Silence (+16 more)

Related

• Silence is a primary, objective reality which cannot be traced back to anything else, preserving the mark of the Divine in creation. (similarity 0.93)
• To Picard the theologian, silence is the context of consciousness while language is the expression of creation. (similarity 0.90)
• Silence is nothing merely negative; it is not the mere absence of speech, but has a kind of Being of its own. (similarity 0.90)
• Silence is a positive, a reality, and language has the power to make assertions about all reality. (similarity 0.88)
• Silence is not the mere absence of something else, but a complex positive phenomenon (similarity 0.88)
• Silence is a positive presence rather than mere absence (similarity 0.87)
• Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything, the presence of time, undisturbed. (similarity 0.87)
• Silence is an active presence that must be experienced, not imagined (similarity 0.86)
• Silence is real, as darkness and cold are real; we feel these as positive sensations, not merely negations of something else. (similarity 0.86)
• Silence is nothing merely negative; it is a positive, a complete world in itself (similarity 0.85)
• Natural silence is a positive presence felt in the body (similarity 0.85)
• Perfect silence equates to infinity and is the precondition for existence (similarity 0.84)
• Pure, absolute silence has never existed and cannot exist (similarity 0.84)
• Contrary to the view that silence perception is merely the cognitive accompaniment of an absence of experience, perceptual systems can track events with no positive sensory content. (similarity 0.84)
• Silence is not simple; reevaluating its constitutional status requires distinguishing it from blankness and recognizing its communicative function. (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Silence is a positive presence rather than mere absence #corroborates (0.95) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1294
• Deep silence can feel like a sensory presence rather than mere absence #expands (0.75) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 35
• Silence is an active presence that must be experienced, not imagined #corroborates (0.70) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 26
• Silence carries deeper meaning and value than speech does. #expands (0.60) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 16
• Silence takes its meaning from surrounding sound #complicates (0.60) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 864