On Liang Chichao’s Comparative Logic

Mohist is one of the important schools of pre-Qin period, and all the works of Mohist are collected as "Mohism". The collection contains abundant logical thoughts. To explore deeply those thoughts is very important for understanding logic more comprehensive. Liang Chichao, a famous Chinese scholar with a wide range study, has outstanding contributions to many fields such as Philosophy, Politics, and Historiography, etc. He is also one of the scholars who have systematically explored the Mohist Logic in modern China. The main characteristic of his Mohist Logic study is that he explains the Mohist Logic with the basic principles of Western Logic and Indian Classical Logic. Therefore, studying Liang’s logical thoughts is not only meaningful for theories, but also for developing traditional Chinese cultures.Liang Chichao’s study on Mohism has deep social, cultural and personal academic background. The introduction of western culture and his achievement on traditional culture, especially on Mohist, makes it possible for him to study the two thoughts comparatively. This essay focuses on Liang Chichao’s comparative study between Mohist Logic, Western Logic and Indian Classical Logic. Based on this, the author makes a brief comment on Liang Chicao’s achievements and shortcomings on his comparative study. Liang pointed out a new way for Chinese logic study, and his study has influenced a large group of scholars in his times and subsequently. But it also has its own shortages on the cultural depth and the comprehensiveness of comparison. By exploring Liang’s achievements and shortages of comparative study, the author gives some inspiring suggestions on the study of Chinese logic history.This essay contains following chapters: Chapter one is the overview of the origin of Liang Chichao’s comparative logic study. By analyzing the social and cultural background of the weak China during the19th century, I show the reasons why Liang studies the logic of mohist and the logic of Aristotle comparatively.Chapter two analyzes Liang Chichao’s main ideas about studying Mohist Logic comparatively. It is mainly summarized into following parts:(1) the method of Liang Chichao’s studying mohist logic:Method of seeking commonness, method of seeking difference.(2) Comparative analysis of Mohist Logic, Indian Classical Logic and Aristotelian Logic, especially, the similarities of and differences between the three thoughts.(3) Describing Liang Chichao’s main ideas of Mohist Logic.Chapter three reviews achievements and shortcomings of Liang Chichao’s comparative Logic study. Liang has comprehensively studied the "Mohist canons" from the aspects of Mohist theory, interpretation of Mohist Canon, Mohist Logic, Utilitariantilism, Universal love and religious thought. He has raised many unique opinions which contribute a lot for the improvement and perfection of Mohist study. However, there are some evident shortages in Liang Chichao’s comparative logic study.The conclusion discusses the enlightenment from Liang Chichao’s comparative logic study. Comparison is an important method of studying Chinese Logic deeply. It is necessary to follow the methodology of combining the comparison method and historical analysis. Comparative logic is not an independent logic subject, but a methodology pattern of logic studying. Thus, we should appraise properly the evaluation criterion in the study of comparative logic.