Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 5, 2024

Silence-Sound and Black-White: Phenomenological Ontology on the World of Sound and Color

(Abstract)

Sun Zhouxing

The world is one of sound and color, and sound and color are the basic elements of the world. In the classical period, natural humans engaged in the first metaphysical contemplations on these elements. Later, in modern Europe, color and sound were subjected to scientific-physical reductionist or simplificationist treatments, which obscured other non-scientific possibilities of color appearance and color perception. Since the nineteenth century, the sound and electrophotographic industries have technologically transformed the world of sound and color, resulting in what is termed “sound and color nihilism” in this paper. Despite this, the question of sound and color remain a mystery. This paper attempts to explore the phenomenon of sound and color from the perspective of phenomenology to propose a type of “sound and color ontology” that recognizes the fundamental element of sound as “silence,” and the fundamental elements of color as “black and white.” The absence of sound and color equates to nothingness, and the presence of sound and color signifies Being. From the perspective of embodied natural human existence, in today’s era of “sound and color nihilism,” we need to maintain or rekindle the original perceptions of “hearing the silence” and “seeing the darkness.”