Analogy

Abstract

The chapter provides a short summary of the studies of analogical reasoning in ancient China in China and the West in the twentieth century. The chapter contains an analysis of interpretations of an excerpt from the Meng Zi 孟子offered by several authors including Zhu Xi, James Legge, D. C. Lau, J.-P. Reding, Chad Hansen, Liu Yameng, and Chris Fraser. The author claims that the first-order predicate logic cannot be used for study of this and other cases of analogical inference in ancient Chinese texts and provides a new interpretation of the excerpt.