Research On The Fallacy Thoughts In The Period Of Pre-Qin And Two Han Dynasties

The problem of fallacy is one of the basic problems in logic, it is embodied in the three origins of logic thoughts in the world. The fallacy thoughts are most fruitful and characteristic in the period of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties. So it’s needed to do a research on the fallacy thoughts during that period, which aims to have a systematical review and summarization on the development of that times; disclose its characteristics thoughout the comparison with Western fallacy thoughts and the fallacy thoughts of Hetuvidya; unearth its reasonably ideological values by the new methods and the contemporary fallacy theories.There are two basic clues of the fallacy thoughts in the period of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties:the fallacy of Ming based on the relation between Ming and Shi and the fallacy of Bian appeared in the argumentations among different schools.The two kinds of fallacy constitute the core of the fallacy thoughts in that period. The fallacy of Ming is judged by the accordance between Ming and Shi. It requires the accordance among the existence, the idea and the language which expresses the idea. The disaccordance between any two of the three can lead to fallacy. The fallacy of Bian involves in many respects of the argumentation, such as the rules of reasoning, the content, language and the moral codes of the argumentation. The fallacy of Bian comes from the need to prove and safeguard the philosophers’ theories and thoughts of the times.The fallacy thoughts in the period of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties have a substantial connection with its historical and cultural background, which reflected the philosophers’thoughts and political pursuits. The thoughts of philosophers in pre-Qin are diversified. The philosophers of different schools were representatives of different classes, so their theories reflected their different interests and values. The contention of hundred schools of thought in essence is the process of critique and counter-critique in which the philosophers always believed their own theories were right and other’s wrong. The above thinking model results in the philosophers considering the ideological orientation of their own school as the standard of judging fallacies. It is the main line of fallacy classification in pre-Qin."Lv’s Spring and Autumn" and"Huai Nan Tzu" ulteriorly elucidate and summarize the fallacy of Ming and Bian. But at this time, the contention of hundred schools of thought has disappeared. All kinds of thoughts blend and gradually have the scheduled one. So the fallacy of Ming and Bian make slow progress. The philosophers diverted their research to other topics because of the deification of Confucianism, divination and political corruption overflowing. Wang Chong’s theory of fallacy is the representative of the fallacy thoughts in the period. In this period, fallacy is judged by efficacy and verification. The expressions which are contradict with facts and rational thinking are considered as fallacies. This standard shows the critical force of practical inspecting and logical argumentation and refutation agaist fallacy. In the late Eatern Han Dynasty, the fallacy thoughts are concentrated on the criticization about the political flaws, so its logic meaning is weaker, and the development of Chinese ancient fallacy thoughts slow dowm.Our research on the fallacy thoughts of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties bases on the predecessor’s research results. Modern Chinese scholars preliminarily study the fallacy thoughts in the period of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties by the introducing western fallacy theories at that times. The main fruits of this study are as follows: Liang Qi-chao firstly analyzed the fallacy thoughts of Mohist School by comparing the Chinese ancient fallacy thoughts to western fallacy theory; based on the comparative method, Hu Shi payed more attention to the historic analysis method and analyzed the pre-Qin fallacy thoughts. His idea combined with the corresponding social, political and cultural backgrounds, the social and political ideals of each school; Zhang Shi-zhao integrated scattered fallacy thoughts in the period of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties into an entire framework of Aristotle’s fallacy theory. The research on the Chinese ancient fallacy thoughts increasingly cases more concern of the international academic logic circle. In addition, Contemporary western scholars analysed the pre-Qin fallacy thoughts in detail from the view of western culture, especially the view of semantics and pragmatics. The fruits and limits of research of modern Chinese scholars and contemporary western scholars on the fallacy thoughts in the period of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties are the foundation and have a certain reference significance to its rearrangement and resurrenctment at this stage.The fallacy thoughts of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties is the initial stage of Chinese ancient fallacy thoughts. In that period, the analysis and studies on the fallacy were relatively plain and scattered, there was no systematic discussion. In order to understand its characteristics and have a systematic theory of the fallacy thoughts at that times, we should use modern method to analyze reclassify the fallacy thoughts of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties. From the point of view of reclassified, the field of fallacy thoughts in the period of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties is not confined to logic, it involves the whole process of verbal communication. But the study is around the the form of thinking, Ming, Ci, Shuo, Bian. So we consider the four forms of thinking as the clues of reclassification. The fallacy thoughts of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties can be reclassified as the fallacy of Ming, the fallacy of Ci, the fallacy of Shuo, the fallacy of Bian. The fallacy thoughts of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties seldom involved the formal fallacies. The philosophers of this time studied Ming, Ci, Shuo, Bian from the view of connotation of words, and the fallcy thoughts of Ming, Ci, Shuo, Bian is a problem of language’s application in the social life, so the fallacies are mainly semantic fallacies and pragmatic fallacies. This analysis have a lot in common with the contemporary fallacy theory under informal logic perspectives. So we can ues this modern tools to analyze the fallacy thoughts of pre-Qin and two Han Dynasties. It is useful to dredge up its contemporary values and help us have a thorough understanding and deep introspection to the fallacy thoughts.