Research On Mapei’s General Logic Thoughts

Professor Ma Pei is one of the famous old generation of logicians in our country and he was known as the title of “one of the three “Ma’s” in the field of logic, and herein “Ma” is the surname of three famous logicians. In a long journey in academic research, Professor Ma Pei’s research area involves in common logic, dialectical logic, language logic, philosophicus and other logics in different aspects. Among them, the general logic an important field of many research fields of Professor Ma Pei. Upon this field, he wrote a series of academic papers, participated in editing a number of academic works and acted as the editor-in-chief of four general logic textbooks. The general logic essays written by Professor Ma Pei are mostly the outcomes form his debates between different opinions in the academic circles.The research on general logic by Professor Ma Pei can be divided into three aspects: research on essential issues of general logic, research on some specific theories in general logic discipline and research on general logic teaching in universities and colleges. The research on essential issues of general logic mainly refers to that: Professor Ma Pei considers that the object of study on general logic is form of thought, and the form of thought is the existing form of the content of thought; the existence of general thought stage and general thought form is the basic theoretical precondition of the rationality of general logic discipline. Regarding to the research on some specific theories in general logic discipline, this paper mainly summarized his research on the following several issues: 1. Study on virtual concept; 2. Study on collective concept; 3. Study on categorical judgment. The research on general logic teaching by Professor Ma Pei mainly includes two aspects: 1. Study on general logic teaching system. By writing articles, Professor Ma Pei explored the general logic teaching system by way of theoretical thinking. And by editing textbooks, he implemented his theoretical thinking to general logic teaching system into practice. Professor Ma Pei mainly probes into general logic teaching system of the liberal arts in universities and colleges, and his basic idea is: the general logic system of liberal arts at universities and colleges is given priority to the content of traditional logic, and appropriate introduction of basic knowledge of mathematical logic, such as propositional calculus and predicate calculus. 2. The debates with and the participation in logic teaching at universities and colleges in the new era. The issue of the logic teaching reform, since 1990 s, gradually causes the discussion among academics. In different ways people discuss how to carry out the modernization of logic teaching. After the publication of the article "On the Logic of Teaching in China" by Professor Wang Lu and the article "Also Talking about the Logic of Teaching in China-with Mr Wang Lu", the logic field discussed the logic of teaching toward a climax. In this discussion, Professor Ma Pei’s view can be summarized as following: the "replacement" is not reasonable, and the logic of the liberal arts teaching in colleges can’t replace traditional logic with mathematical logic. In training of ordinary thinking, traditional logic has the characteristics that the mathematical logic can not replace, such as the main use of natural language, the calculus method, etc.Professor Ma Pei’s understanding of "general logic" is different with the understanding from the academia: on the one hand, it refers to a discipline, which is a logical subject studying on general thought form; On the other hand, the general logic includes two meanings, narrow and broad meanings. The narrow general logic refers to the traditional logic and the broad general logic refers to the discipline studying on general thought form and its regulation, including not only the traditional logic, but also the mathematical logic, modal logic and other modern logics, which also can be called “modern formal logic”.The research on general logic by Professor Ma Pei, on one side reflects the development status of the logic science especially the general logic in our country since the establishment of People’s Republic of China. In the process of his research on general logic, his option of research issues and his research methods used for relevant issues provide reference and enlightenment to our logic research.