HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Language
Language, Silence, and Logic: Zen, Nishida, and the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in Cognitive and Cultural Perspectives
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yonsei University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
- 2Wuhan Qingchuan University, Wuhan, China
- 3SiChuan University of Science & Engineering, SiChuan, China
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This study employs a weakened version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis as its analytical framework. Through comparative conceptual analysis, it examines Zen Buddhism's nonverbal practices (koans and silence) and Nishida Kitaro's dialectical philosophy of language (pure experience, absolute contradictory self-identity, and the logic of place) as two core conceptual cases. It proposes and argues for a "Middle Way" theoretical framework that integrates silence with dialectical expression. This framework acknowledges the habitual shaping of cognition by linguistic structures while elucidating how Zen Buddhism, through the radical suspension of language, and Nishida, through dialectical reconstruction within language, complementarily transcend the cognitive limitations revealed by linguistic relativism. This study offers a novel theoretical model grounded in Eastern philosophy for linguistic science and cross-cultural psychology. It demonstrates its operational potential in cross-cultural education through an illustrative pedagogical case study (presented as a qualitative teaching narrative)
Keywords: Cross-cultural philosophy, Kitaro Nishida, linguistic relativism, Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, Zen Buddhism
Received: 30 Jul 2025; Accepted: 12 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 KUANG, 하초, CHEN, SONG, SONG and DAI. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
XUE KUANG
CI WAN DAI
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