An Ontological Diagnosis of the Educational Cognitive Crisis in the Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence A Framework Based on Knowing and Saying

Abstract

The large-scale educational application of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is recon- structing the fundamental conditions of human cognition at an unprecedented pace. Utilizing the three-layer cognitive structure of "Soma-Emotion-Meaning" established in Zhang Xusheng’s Knowing and Saying as the core analytical framework, and integrating the "Progressive Weakening-Compensation Principle" from Wang Dongyue’s The Theory of Universal Evolution as the ontological philosophical foundation, this paper presents a systematic ontological diagnosis of the educational cognitive crisis in the GenAI era. This paper argues that the crisis currently facing the educational field is not merely a problem of technological adaptation, but a profound cognitive ontological crisis: GenAI alienates the meaning-generation process from the cognitive subject through the "language concealment effect," erodes the cognitive foundation of somatic perception and emotional experience through "cognitive offloading," and disintegrates the formative mechanisms of judgment through the "algorithmic black box." Furthermore, drawing upon the speech act theories of Austin and Searle , this paper reveals the fundamental intentionality defects in the language output generated by GenAI, and proposes theoretical pathways for reconstructing cognitive integration anchors from the perspective of educational philosophy. The core contribution of this paper lies in introducing the cognitive ontological framework of Knowing and Saying into contemporary discussions of educational philosophy, providing a philosophical diagnosis that transcends the technicism perspective for the educational crisis in the GenAI era.