AG Leon Horsten

Speaker:
Mike Beany (University of Aberdeen)

Abstract

Mohist (Chinese) logic can be seen as concerned with one-step inferences involving the compounding of names—inferences of the form ‘A is B; so FA is FB’. Some of these are good inferences and some are bad, and this lecture will explore the ways in which the Mohists established their claims about the validity or invalidity of such inferences. Their explicit argumentation may seem analytically suspect but on deeper analysis, we can often find arguments that can be defended, or at least can make better sense of what might otherwise seem implausible. Making such sense also pushes us to broaden our own conceptions and practices of analysis.