This paper aims to show that the absence of sounds can be an object of auditory perception. First, I present various types of objections to the possibility of hearing the absence of sounds. Next, I explain that there is a kind of absence of sounds which seems to be heard, namely, the absence of sounds occurred in between sounds. I argue that perception of such an absence can be explained by the same mechanism for hearing sounds and detecting sound sources, that is, auditory scene analysis. I also argue that such an absence can be characterized, analogous to holes, as a dependent object which ontologically depends on previous and succeeding sounds. Based on these considerations, I reply the objections. Finally, I propose a modality-neutral model of absence perception based on the auditory case, and suggest that this model casts a doubt on the basic assumptions about perception.
