Cross-Tradition Engagement on the Laws of Logic

This book demonstrates how, through cross-tradition engagement, insights and engaging treatments from the Chinese philosophical tradition can work with relevant resources from modern logic and contemporary philosophy to enhance our understanding of two basic principles of logic: the law of identity and the law of non-contradiction. The law of identity and the law of non-contradiction are widely accepted principles in logic and other intellectual pursuits. However, there are disagreements as to how to understand and treat the genuine structures and contents of these two basic principles. This book provides a holistic inquiry into these principles for the sake of enhancing our understanding and treatment of them from the vantage point of cross-tradition engagement. It begins by offering a philosophical interpretation of three classical texts in Chinese philosophy in their respective contexts: the "Bai-Ma-Lun" in Gongsun Long's texts, the "Xiao-Qu" in the Later Mohist texts, and Lao Zi's Dao-De-Jing in classical Daoism. The author explains an innovative dual-track characterization of relative identity that is informed by relevant resources from these texts as well as Western philosophical traditions. He shows how this cross-tradition engaging approach can make constructive and significant contributions to the jointly concerned fundamental issues of identity and reference in logic, philosophy of logic and language, metaphysics, as well as philosophy more generally. Cross-Tradition Engagement on the Laws of Logic will appeal to scholars and advanced students working in philosophy of logic, philosophy of language, Chinese philosophy, and comparative philosophy.

Bo Mou is Professor of Philosophy at San Jose State University, California, USA. He is the author of the monograph books Substantive Perspectivism (2009), Semantic-Truth Approaches in Chinese Philosophy: A Unifying Pluralist Account (2019), and Cross-Tradition Engagement in Philosophy: A Constructive-Engagement Account (2020). He is also a contributing editor for History of Chinese Philosophy (2009) and Philosophy of Language, Chinese Language, Chinese Philosophy (2018).

Introduction Part 1: On Gongsun Long's, Later Mohist, and Lao Zi's Approaches to the Two Laws of Logic: A Holistic Philosophical Interpretation from the Vantage Point of Double Reference and Relative Identity 1. On Gongsun Long's Approach to the Two Laws of Logic: Look at the Alleged "White-Horse-Not-Horse" Paradox Dissolved through the Joint Point of Double Reference and Relative Identity 2. On Later Mohist Approach to the Two Laws of Logic: Approaching Parallel Inference with Semantic Sensitivity to Double-Reference Identity 3. On Lao Zi's Approach to the Two Laws of Logic: Dissolving the Alleged Ultimate-Unspeakable Paradox from a Holistic Vantage Point of Double-Reference Identity Part 2: An Enhanced Account of Relative Identity and Refined Characterizations of the Two Basic Laws of Logic: From the Vantage Point of Cross-Tradition Engagement 4. An Enhanced Account of Relative Identity: Double-Reference Starting Point and Dual-Track Feature 5. A Refined Characterization of the Law of Identity: from the Vantage Point of the Enhanced Account of Relative Identity 6. A Refined Characterization of the Principle of Non-Contradiction: From Aristotle and the GSL-LM-LZ Approach to a Holistic Double-Reference Vantage Point Appendixes Appendix 1: An Expanded Predicate Logic Account with Enhanced Dual-Track Relative Identity Sign, Collective-Generic Operator and Multiple-layer Domain of Reference Appendix 2: Comparative Chronology of Philosophers in Chinese and Western Philosophical Traditions Appendix 3: Notes on Transcription and Guide to Pronunciation