The Religious Educational Implications of Laozi and Wittgenstein's ‘Silence’

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to discuss what Laozi and Wittgenstein's ‘silence’ means, and to reveal the religious educational implications of silence.CONTENTS Can human language describe everything in the world as it is? If it cannot be explained in words, how can it be revealed that there is no clear explanation in words, especially like the truth of religion? This is the starting point of this study. Laozi said that those who speak do not know, and those who know do not speak(知者不言), so those who have learned the truth are bound to reveal the truth by putting it into action. Wittgenstein also emphasizes the importance of practice while pointing out the limitations of language through the proposition, “Clear what can be said, but silence what cannot be said.”RESULTS This study will closely examine the silence emphasized by Laozi and Wittgenstein and reveal what the common silence of the two thinkers means in terms of religious education. In a world where things that are not clear are spoken too easily, this study attempts to indicate that the discourse on the silence of the two thinkers aims to restore human nature through practice.