Talking seems like the difficult part of a conversation, and listening, the easy part: you stay quiet, and the rest comes in on its own. Plutarch, in the treatise How to Listen, reverses this intuition. For him, listening well is the most active and difficult work of the mind, even more so than speaking.
The reason is on the side of the ear
Plutarch cites Theophrastus to justify this inversion: of all the senses, hearing is the most linked to reason and the least linked to passions. The eyes, any shine seduces. The ear, when well trained, filters, weighs, judges before accepting. This is why he records the proverb, "nature gave each one two ears and one tongue, so that we speak less and listen more": the body is already designed for a greater task of listening than speaking.
Speaking, deep down, simply requires putting into words what the mind has already created. Listening well requires following, in real time, someone else's reasoning, without getting carried away by your own reactions.
Three reactions that compete for attention
And that's where the real difficulty lies. Listening well means overcoming three automatic reactions, all internal. The first is the ego: instead of following the argument to the end, the mind is already building the reply, and stops listening prematurely. The second is envy, which Plutarch describes bluntly, whoever is offended by a good speech secretly hopes that it is weak. The third is excessive admiration, which seems the opposite of a defect, but is seduced by the form and lets an empty content pass by.
Speaking does not require overcoming any of these three forces. Listening well requires conquering all three at the same time, and still following what is being said.
Vase that receives, wood that burns
Plutarch summarizes this difference in a final image. The mind that only receives is a vessel, which remains full and passive. The mind that truly listens is wood, which catches fire and burns on its own, producing "an inventive impulse and an appetite for truth." Talking fills the vessel of the listener. Listening well is what sets the wood on fire, and therefore, for Plutarch, it is the greatest effort of both.
Readings from Nous
Read the classics in depth
Our list of more than 130 recommended books, commented and organized by theme, so you don't read in the dark.
See recommended readingsFrequently asked questions
Why is listening more difficult than speaking?
Because speaking leaves the mind occupied only with what it already knows, while listening well requires resisting ego, envy and easy admiration, three automatic reactions that hinder the understanding of what the other person says. Plutarch calls this the most active work of the mind.
What did Theophrastus say about the hearing?
According to Plutarch, Theophrastus argued that hearing is the sense most linked to reason and the least linked to passions, different from vision, which any shine seduces. That is why virtue only reaches the soul through a well-trained ear.
What internal reactions hinder listening?
Three, according to Plutarch, the ego, which is already putting together the response instead of listening to the entire argument, envy, which hopes that the other's good word is weak, and excessive admiration, which surrenders to the beautiful voice without examining the content.
Continue: How to Listen, by Plutarch · Why should you listen before speaking? · Socrates' maieutics
Source class (YouTube): Como Ouvir, de Plutarco (NousCast)