The Grammar of Silence: Epistemic Humility in Bhartrhari’s Vākyapadīya

While Western logic often prioritizes propositional truth, sixth-century grammarian Bhartrhari argued that language is a cognitive construction meant to stop the mind, not to pin down reality. By analyzing his concept of sphoṭa as a unified mental event rather than linear syllables, we can reconstruct a framework for understanding how silence functions as a valid epistemic state rather than mere absence of speech.

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