Chinese logic and Chinese philosophy: reconstruction or integration?

“Logic” derives from the Greek ... , meaning word, speech or discourse. Its translation into Chinese is ... , which is merely phonetic. “Philosophy” derives from the Greek , meaning a love of wisdom. Its translation into Chinese is (zhixue) “the study of wisdom”, which strikes an odd note due to the Confucian sublimation of wisdom to more important virtues such as (ren) “humanity”. These Greek words have played a defining role in Western intellectual history, so much so that it would be difficult to imagine the result of somehow subtracting them to see what remains. By contrast, attempts to find logic and philosophy in Chinese tradition meet with only partial success.

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