Reasons for the lack of argumentation and debate in the Far East

This essay examines Chinese and Japanese attitudes towards speech communication, particularly in public settings. Social, linguistic, and philosophical perspectives are used to explain the absence of dialogue and debate. Section one argues that geodemographic factors influenced East Asia to exalt human-centered hierarchies over prepositional truth in their thought systems. Section two looks at the hieroglyphic character and grammatical presuppositions of Chinese and Japanese, to explain a mind-set more oriented towards imagery and sympathetic understanding than to definition and distinction. Section three traces the views of the leading East Asian philosophies towards oral communication—Confucianism, Taoism, Zen Buddhism, and the Ming-chia (School of names), respectively—finding yet other grounds for East Asian rejection of argumentation. This essay does not intend to imply the superiority of Western logic or thought patterns to East Asian ones. Rather, it is intended to alert a Western audience as to the culture-boundedness of Western appreciation of discussion and debate, as well as to the deep-seated Sino-Japanese prejudices against these communication styles.