Delphic Maxim 78: Observe what you have heard

I’ve set myself the challenge of responding to each Delphic Maxim for 15 minutes a day.

78. Observe what you have heard

There are a number of Delphic Maxims that are only a shade away from being identical to another. This may because they were re-inscribed on different parts of the temple, or perhaps because something is lost in the act of translation (particularly since the translation I’m drawing on is a list of maxims on Wikipedia — hopefully there will be a chance for me to talk about fake news and information literacy at a later date). Today’s maxim is almost identical to one we encountered a while back: perceive what you have heard.

In that post, I talked about the act of listening, and how it isn’t enough that we simply hear, but that we perceive what it is that we hear. So how does that differ from this maxim? The key lies in the verb: to observe. In effect, the contrast between these two maxims is inviting us to think about the difference between perceiving and observing, and how each is important for developing the act of hearing.

Perceiving is a process that takes us deeper into an experience — it requires a degree of mental processing in order to interpret what we have heard. It’s not quite the same as critical analysis (though there is a degree of critique that might be read into it, so that we can properly understand something that we have heard). This is different to observing, which involves a degree of reflection.

When we observe something, it’s about taking in a broader vista. Observation implies a degree of detachment or removal: we generally avoid interfering. If I were to put it in researcher terms, it involves being present in a situation, but minimally affecting it. We know, of course, that observation does have effects on a situation — you might think of Schrodinger’s thought experiment with a cat — and that applies in research and in life. The act of observing influences and transforms something.

But where the act of perceiving is about interpreting a piece of information, the act of observing what we have heard involves taking a step back to look at the sum of what we have heard. It’s about putting things in context, reflecting and reviewing, broadening the horizons of our listening. This might be difficult when we are in the moment of a conversation — especially an intense and interesting one — but after the fact it is definitely a possibility.

In effect, this maxim is another tool we can use for learning. Reflection and reflexivity are good qualities in students of the world: if we want to properly understand something, we need to take the time to revise and rethink; to situate and locate a thought or a statement or a conversation in a broader network of knowledge.

This doesn’t mean that we do this for every single conversation we have. When you’re deciding whether you want pizza or burgers for dinner, it’s pretty inconsequential in the long run (although maybe not for your body), and you probably don’t need to ‘observe and perceive’ what you have heard here (except to make sure you’re choosing a pizza everyone is keen on). But the meaning of life stuff? That’s more important. Especially when you’re getting to know people, or negotiating, or learning, or generally when depth of communication is a quality that is vital to a relationship.

So perceiving is the act of working with and interpreting what you hear, and observing is about situating what you hear in the broader context. Who would have thought a slight change of wording can deliver some significantly different advice!