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Voice, as a Theme in Phenomenology

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Encyclopedia of Phenomenology

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“Voice” can mean everything from a sigh of relief to Vox Mundi. One of philosophy’s tasks is to clarify the meaning of voice and ascertain its ontological standing with respect to humans and the other inhabitants of the globe. Phenomenology approaches voice and other phenomena by putting aside predetermined ideas and allowing the phenomena to reveal their own stories. I will present the efforts of contemporary phenomenologists to address the dimensions of voice and the issues they raise. We will see that these issues involve ethical and political as well as ontological concerns.

If we restrict ourselves for the moment to human voices, the acoustic and the semanticare their most obvious dimensions. The acoustic dimension is the sound produced by the vibration of the vocal cords. This sonorous event can also include the tonal, emotional, musical, rhythmical, and other qualities with which it is expressed. In contrast, the semantic dimension of voice is typically equated with the...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Fred Evans

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  1. Fred Evans
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Correspondence to Fred Evans .

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  1. Department of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA

    Nicolas de Warren

  2. Dept of Philosophy, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Ted Toadvine

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Evans, F. (2024). Voice, as a Theme in Phenomenology. In: de Warren, N., Toadvine, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Phenomenology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47253-5_391-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47253-5_391-1

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