The Zen Logic of “Is and Is Not”

Nishida Kitaro’s Development of the Concept of ‘soku hi’ (即非)

Photo by Fabrizio Chiagano on Unsplash

Shuzan held out his short staff and said, “If you call this a short staff, you oppose its reality. If you do not call it a short staff, you ignore the fact. Now what do you wish to call this?” (Famous Zen Koan)

Asian Philosopy, in particular Buddhist philosophy, as earned a bit of a reputation of being less “logical”…