I’ve heard people say ‘God gave us two ears and one mouth, so we can listen twice as much as we say’.
This is one of those simple truths typical of Sunday school, and I think that it illustrates very well why any sane person should avoid simple truths.
First, if two people are having a conversation for 1 hour and both listen twice as much (40 min) as they talk (20 min), there’s going to be a long awkward silence (20 min).
On the other hand, if there are many people, e.g. 10, listening only twice as much as you speak would actually be quite rude. It would be nicer if you listen 9 times as much (54 min) as you speak (6 min) so that everybody can chip in the conversation.
But what is really wrong with simple truths is that they may discourage people from searching for more insightful answers.
Indeed, why 2 ears? This is not even a new question, and a lot of theory has been developed for the last 100 years. Already in 1907, Rayleigh noted that as a source of sound moves around a listener, sound waves arrive with different time and intensity to each ear. Our brains process those cues and so we are able to locate sound sources. (Besides, the spectral characteristics of interfering sound waves at the tympanum change with elevation). This is known as binaural hearing, and it also allows us to hear much fainter sounds than we would with 1 ear only.
Zeno would doubtless point out that, “if two people are having a conversation for 1 hour and both listen twice as much (40 min) as they talk (20 min)”, they’re each listening (20 m.) as much as they talk (20 m.), actually. Unless they’re not listening to each other, which I took to be the whole point. Just being fastidious.
I would like to contend to of Elea and López-Gallego (2007) that, according to Simon and Garfunkel (1965), it is actually possible to listen to the sound of silence.