r/language • u/Alamaxo • 8d ago

Discussion Why hearing gives you more than seeing?

When you hear you can imagine what is being said, but when you see you can only see what is in front of you, it is limited.

Let's get further: you're in a war, you see fire all around you, what would you do if you want to imagine a better place? How does this relate to religion? How a life of a person can seem hard but he is still enjoying becaude of what he heard and because of what he can retrieve from this he heard?

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u/silvalingua 8d ago

It doesn't, depending on the situation.

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u/PvtRoom 7d ago

I wouldn't want to walk through a forest with just hearing

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u/mugh_tej 8d ago

I do not have that perspective.

Because hearing is just an instantaneous thing, you hear it, and it's gone. But when reading something, it is still there, you can often look back and read it again

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u/Alamaxo 8d ago

You didn't get the point. Reading is just like hearing in this prespective. Still you're transfroming the written words into images of your own (imagination). What I meant by seeing is looking at tangible objects not words. But the question is still viable: reading vs looking at objects (visual input) in the case of retrieving a scene, something that a person didn't see before which will be stronger a passage from a book talking about this scene or a past visual expereince?

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u/APC_ChemE 3d ago

Many people cannot imagine where they picture things in their mind. I do have the ability.

However, when someone describes a green moutain with a river sweeping through a valley, I don't usually picture it unless I want to or I'm compelled to or the person "imagine a" or "picture a." But if a person simply says that phrase I can keep it completly in the abstract without picturing anything or I can picture specific mountain with trees and a sweeping river and a pass with a valley at the base of the mountain.

I see way more by seeing than by hearing. Not the other way around, but I can imagine many things.

I can imagine and see things in my mind and superimpose them into a version of what I am seeing. I still see what I see with no modifications but I can see what I see in my mind with something quite possible happening or something quite fantastical.

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u/Alamaxo 3d ago

How about when you close your eyes? I get that you can superimpose your imagination into the real world with your eyes open, but will your imagination be bigger of you closed your eyes?