Logic in China

In the history of logic, logic in China plays a particularly interesting role due to its length and relative isolation from the strong current of development of the study of logic in Europe and the Islamic world, though it may have some influence from Indian logic due to the spread of Buddhism.

Mohist logic

In China, a contemporary of Confucius, Mozi, "Master Mo", is credited with founding the Mohist school, whose canons dealt with issues relating to valid inference and the conditions of correct conclusions. However, they were nonproductive and not integrated into Chinese science or mathematics.

The Mohist school of Chinese philosophy contained an approach to logic and argumentation that stresses analogical reasoning over deductive reasoning, and is based on the three fa, or methods of drawing distinctions between kinds of things.

One of the schools that grew out of Mohism, the Logicians, are credited by some scholars for their early investigation of formal logic.

The repression of the study of logic

During the subsequent Qin Dynasty, the rule of Legalism repressed this Mohist line of investigation, which disappeared in China until the introduction of Indian philosophy and Indian logic by Buddhists.^[1]

Buddhist logic

Main article: Buddhist logic

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.

References

1. ^ Hajime Nakamura, Philip P. Wiener (1964). Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples: India-China-Tibet-Japan. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0824800788.

Bibliography

• Henryk Greniewski, Olgierd Wojtasiewicz, From the History of Chinese Logic. Studia Logica Volume 4, Number 1 1956. P. 241-243
• Chmielewski, Janusz. "Notes on Early Chinese Logic." Rocznik Orientalistyczny 26.1 (1962): 7-22; 26.2 (1963): 91-105; 27.1 (1963): 103-21; 28.2 (1965): 87-111; 29.2 (1965): 117-38; 30.1 (1966): 31-52; 31.1 (1968): 117-36; 32.2 (1969): 83-103.
• Hansen, Chad. Language and Logic in Ancient China. Michigan Studies on China. Ann Arbor, 1983.
• Lucas, Thierry, 1993, “Hui Shih and Kung Sun Lung: an Approach from Contemporary Logic,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy 20.2: 211-55.
• Lucas Thierry, "Later Mohist logic, Lei, classes and sorts," Journal of Chinese Philosophy 32: 349-366 (2005)
• Спирин В.С.О "третьих" и "пятых" понятиях в логике древнего Китая //Дальний Восток.М.,1961.
• Крушинский А.А. Имена и реалии в древнекитайской логике и методологии.(Обзор)// Современные историко-научные исследования: наука в традиционном Китае.Реферативный сборник М., 1987.С.88-105.
• Чжоу Юньчжи. Основные вехи развития древнекитайской логики мин бянь, ее главные особенности и реальные достижения //Рационалистическая традиция и современность: Китай. М., 1993. С.152-177.

External links

• Later Mohist Dialecticians
• Language and logic in ancient China