Logic in China

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China is a special case in the history of logic, due to its relatively long isolation from the corresponding traditions that developed in Europe, India, and the Islamic world.

Background: comparison with other traditions

formal logic separable from language as otherwise written.[3] Notably, syllogisms – arguments fundamental to classical Hellenistic and Indian logic, where a necessary conclusion is deduced from two propositions assumed to be true – are almost entirely absent from premodern Chinese writing.[4]

There was no Chinese word with a meaning akin to Ancient Greek logĭkós prior to the modern period. As in many other languages, the modern Chinese word for "logic" (traditional Chinese: 邏輯; simplified Chinese: 逻辑; pinyin: luójí; lit. 'patrol-gather') is a loanword stemming ultimately from the Greek term. It was coined in 1902 by Yan Fu to correspond phonemically to the English word logic for his translation of A System of Logic by John Stuart Mill; its characters were not chosen via phono-semantic matching or as a purely semantic calque like some other Chinese translations of the term that appeared during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.[5]

Mohist logic

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argumentation that stresses rhetorical analogies over mathematical reasoning, and is based on the three fa, or methods of drawing distinctions between kinds of things. As classical Chinese philosophical logic was based on analogy rather than syllogism
, fa were used as benchmarks to determine the validity of logical claims through comparison.

The

formal logic
.

Taoist skepticism

Although Taoist skeptics such as Zhuang Zhou agreed with the Mohist perspective about object relations regarding similarities and differences, they did not consider language to be sufficiently precise to provide a constant guide of action.[6]

Official repression of the study of logic

During the

Neo-Taoism maintained some interest in the Canons, although they may already have some of the terminology difficult to understand.[8] Before the end of the Sui dynasty, a shortened version of Mozi appeared, which appears to have replaced the Han edition. Although the original Mozi had been preserved in the Taoist,[clarification needed] and became known once more in the 1552 Lu edition and 1553 Tang edition, the damage was done: the dialectical chapters (as well as the military chapters) were considered incomprehensible.[9] Nevertheless, with the rise of Chinese critical textual scholarship, the book benefited from explanatory and critical commentaries: first, by Bi Yuan, and his assistant, Sun Xingyan; another commentary by Wang Chong, which has not survived; "the first special study",[10] by Zhang Huiyan; a republication of Part B by Wu Rulun. However, the summit of this late imperial scholarship, according to Graham, was the 'magnificent' commentary of Sun Yirang, which "threw open the sanctum of the Canons to all comers".[10] Graham summarises the arduous textual history of the Canons by arguing that the Canons were neglected throughout most of China's history; but he attributes this fact to "bibliographical" accidents, rather than political repression, like Nakamura.[11]

Buddhist logic

Main article: Buddhist logico-epistemology

The study of logic in China was revived following the transmission of Buddhism in China, which introduced the Buddhist logical tradition that began in Indian logic. Buddhist logic has been often misunderstood by scholars of Chinese Buddhism because they lack the necessary background in Indian logic.[12]

Western logic

In 1631,

commentary on Aristotle, published through the University of Coimbra
.

In 1886, Joseph Edkins published the Chinese translation of William Stanley Jevons's Elementary Lessons in Logic. In 1905, Yan Fu published the translation of John Stuart Mill's A System of Logic. In the early 1930s, the Department of Philosophy of Tsinghua University was the center of philosophical study. Many of the scholars at Tsinghua University at the time were strongly influenced by Bertrand Russell, who visited China in 1920.

Outside of the PRC,

formal logic stagnated. However, in 1979, after the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese Association of Logic was established with Jin Yuelin
as the first chairman and studies of mathematical logic began.

References

  1. ^ Needham & Harbsmeier (1998), p. 1.
  2. ^ Needham & Harbsmeier (1998), p. 27.
  3. ^ Willman (2016), Introduction.
  4. ^ Gunn (1991), p. 7.
  5. ^ Kurtz (2011), pp. 264–265, 271.
  6. ^ Willman (2016).
  7. ^ Nakamura & Wiener (1981).
  8. ^ Graham (1978), pp. 65–66.
  9. ^ Graham (1978), pp. 68–70.
  10. ^ a b Graham (1978), p. 70.
  11. ^ Graham (1978), p. 72.
  12. ^ See Eli Franco, "Xuanzang's proof of idealism." Horin 11 (2004): 199-212.

Bibliography

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