Chapter 19: Logic

The next day, on the second floor of the city-state Public Library.

“Young man, you cannot enter. This is a gathering for the city-state’s top scholars.” When Ace tried to enter the conference room on the second floor of the library, he was politely but firmly stopped by a middle-aged man. The man was a disciple of Tansen, the scholar hosting the meeting, and he was responsible for reception today.

Ace was a little helpless. Being so young was sometimes troublesome. He let the middle-aged man carefully examine the scholar’s badge issued by the Ministry of Culture and Education for a long time. Finally, with the help of Daina, who happened to pass by and offered an explanation, the middle-aged man agreed to consult with Tansen, and Ace was then allowed to enter the conference room.

There were about 30 people in the conference room. Most of the scholars had white hair, so it was no wonder the man hadn’t let him in. After all, no one told the middle-aged man that a young boy was also qualified to attend the meeting.

“Time is up. Gentlemen, please be quiet. I am Tansen, the hosting scholar for this year. I mainly research the state of Monsters and authored The Guide of Low Level Monster. I am very happy to communicate with you all today. There are many familiar faces here, and some new ones. Please introduce yourselves one by one, and then we will begin the rotation of speeches.”

So it was him. Ace thought of The Guide of Low Level Monster, which had been very helpful to him, and his goodwill toward Tansen increased. He sat in a back row, watching everyone take the stage to speak. When it was his turn, a small rustle of whispers arose, mostly in surprise at his youth.

“I am Ace, a disciple of Peter the Polymath. I co-authored the Universal Language Dictionary of Common Vocabulary with my teacher and independently wrote Classification & Indexing of Books. Everyone here is a senior in academia, and I hope to learn from you all up close today.” This was a standard Peter-style opening, polite and humble.

After a few warming remarks from the host scholar Tansen, the rotational speaking phase began. The scholars started taking the stage to elaborate on their academic philosophies. Ace, as a newly appointed scholar, was last. By the time he took the stage, the crowd was already tired, and some scholars were yawning. Peter looked at Ace with an encouraging gaze, and Ace nodded slightly back at him.

“I am Ace. I specialize in the language field and am currently researching the field of medicine. But today, I will not talk about language or medicine. The scholars yawning below must be thinking, ‘Is this young man messing with us? Besides language and medicine, what else can he talk about?’”

Ace’s opening successfully made the sleeping scholars laugh, and their attention became more focused.

“What I want to talk about today is: ‘What is Logic and its Decisive Significance in Academic Research.’ ”

The scholars below were a bit confused upon hearing this unfamiliar word, another coined term. Peter showed a knowing smile.

“This is a new word I coined, combining the root of thought and the suffix of reason, meaning rational thinking. When I was studying language, I discovered that language is the key to thought. If I were to define language, then language is the tool of thought, realizing, consolidating, and communicating thought.” Ace paused, waiting for the scholars below to contemplate.

The scholars below discussed softly. “Your disciple is interesting. Both the compound word and the definition of language are novel and apt. He truly lives up to his reputation as someone who defines words,” said Bayen, a scholar specializing in arithmetic, to Peter.

“Through the study of language, I found that thought has patterns. A good way of thinking will allow us to better understand the world and excel in our own academic fields. To truly research a field well, one must research without prejudice or subjective bias, which I call objective and neutral research. Logic is a field of study that helps people think objectively and neutrally.”

“This disciple of yours has a lot of ambition, trying to guide people on how to think.” Bayen was somewhat dismissive. How could a young boy possibly know better how to think than the old men present? Did he think he was a favorite of the Goddess of Wisdom?

Peter was also a bit confused, but he trusted his disciple, as Ace himself was an example of independent and objective thinking. Perhaps he truly had some deep insights.

Ace ignored the private conversations below. “Logic is the study of thought. Thought is too abstract and intangible, so we must give it a fulcrum, and that fulcrum is the concept.

The so-called concept is a way of thinking that reflects the essential or characteristic attributes of a thing. A concept is qualitatively different from sensation, perception, and representation. Sensation, perception, and representation reflect specific images, where the essential and non-essential attributes of the object are mixed together and not separated.

A concept does not reflect the specific image of an object but abstracts the essence of the object, discarding the non-essential attributes of the object. A concept possesses abstractness and generalizability.”

The scholars below gradually became quiet and serious. This series of newly coined words and new definitions clearly outlined what a concept is. In their daily research, they often had flashes of inspiration that they couldn’t quite grasp, but now it seemed they were on the verge of enlightenment.

“What are attributes? They are the nature and relations of a thing. The weight, color, taste, time, space, performance, and function of a thing are its nature, while the correlation between a thing and other things is what we logically call relation.

The attributes of a thing are of two kinds: essential attributes and non-essential attributes. An essential attribute is unique to a class of things. For example, ‘being sick’ is an essential attribute of a patient, while ‘having eyes’ and ‘having feet’ are non-essential attributes of a patient.

To define a thing is the process of abstracting the essential attributes of that thing.”

The entire conference room became even quieter. All the scholars were deep in thought. Peter’s eyes showed surprise. He never expected Ace to have researched such a field of study.

“We also need to clarify the relationship between concepts and ordinary words. All thought is expressed through language. Words are the sounds and symbols that express concepts; they are the linguistic form of concepts, and concepts are the thought content of words. The two are distinct, but I will not elaborate on this here.”

“I also feel there is a difference, but what exactly is the difference? Why won’t your student clarify it?” Bayen complained to Peter, scratching his head.

“I will suggest he write a detailed book on concepts after the meeting. I can sell it to you at a high price then,” Peter retorted to Bayen with mild sarcasm.

“Then you must advise him to write it! I am eager to learn Logic. I think you’ve struck gold. You can’t teach a disciple of such genius,” Bayen replied, having “eaten his words” but not forgetting to take a jab at Peter.

Peter did not reply further, continuing to concentrate on Ace’s talk on concepts.

“Next, I will discuss what is the intension and extension of a concept. A concept reflects the essential attributes of a thing, and thus also reflects the objects that possess this essential attribute. Therefore, a concept has objective content and a definite scope. The intension of a concept is the essential attribute of the concept, and the extension of a concept is the scope of the concept.

For example, the concept of ‘city-state scholar’ has an intension that refers to a person with recognized high academic achievement who has been granted a scholar’s badge by the Ministry of Culture and Education. Its extension is all people who are recognized for high academic achievement and have been granted a scholar’s badge by the Ministry of Culture and Education, whether you research monsters, law, or arithmetic.”

“The intension and extension of a concept possess certainty and flexibility, because a concept originates from human understanding of things. Human understanding of things is stable at one stage but deepens and develops over continuous time, therefore…”

“Concepts have types: single concepts and universal concepts, collective concepts and non-collective concepts, positive concepts and negative concepts…”

“There are relationships between concepts because the objective things that concepts reflect are related in various ways. Based on whether their extensions overlap, they can be divided into compatible and incompatible relationships…”

“Due to time constraints, today I have only discussed what a concept is and the relationships between concepts. Only by maintaining an objective and neutral mindset in research, and using the basic knowledge of Logic as a tool, can we eliminate a priori and conjectural thinking and use rational thinking for academic research. Thank you all.”

Ace stepped down from the stage. The entire conference room was silent. After a good while, a burst of warm applause erupted.