Canons: knowledge

Introduction

We stay with Canons I and its Explanation this week, focusing on the entries about knowledge. They are the most systematic account of knowing in any pre-Qin text.

First, three levels. "虑 (deliberating): seeking." "知 (knowing): making contact." "恕 (understanding, later written 智): being clear." The Explanation is vivid: deliberating is like squinting, you may not see; knowing is like seeing with the eyes, you have seen; understanding is being able to tell apart what you saw.

Then the most famous entry: "Knowing: by hearing, by inference, by personal witness; of names, of things, of matching, of doing." The Explanation: "received from others, that is hearing; not blocked by distance, that is inference; observed in person, that is witness." The second half lists the objects of knowledge: names, the things they pick out, the fit between them, and action.

Next, the kinds of names: "reaching, classifying, private." The Explanation gives examples. "Thing" is a reaching name; anything can be called a thing. "Horse" is a classifying name. "Zang" (a person's name) is a private name. This is the earliest hierarchy of concepts we have.

There are definitions of time and space: "久 (duration): spanning all different times." "宇 (space): spanning all different places." And "穷 (limit)," "尽 (all)," "始 (beginning, the moment itself)," "化 (change of character)," "损 (removing a part)." Each is as short as a riddle; together they are a complete toolkit.

墨门 / The Mohist Community values this section because the three tests need it. Someone who cannot tell "heard" from "witnessed" cannot tell legend from evidence.

The three tests

The relation between heard, inferred, witnessed and the three tests is this week's topic. The first test, grounding, relies on old books and reports: that is hearing. The second, checking against people's eyes and ears: that is witness. Inference has no test of its own; it is scattered through the calculations of the third test, use. This may be a later Mohist's supplement to the teacher: hearing and seeing are not enough, one must also reason. The Community's practice is to fold the Canons' "inference" into the tests, adding after the second one the step "does it follow?"

For families

• Play heard, inferred, witnessed: state something and have children decide whether it was heard, worked out, or seen.
• 科技堂: duration and space, with an hourglass and a ruler. Ask how long a "beginning" lasts.
• Reaching, classifying, private: the family cat is "a thing," "a cat," and "Patches." What does each name do?

For chapters

• 20 min reading · 20 min 墨辩 · 10 min 三表 review · 10 min 职 reports.
• 墨辩 motion: "The three tests are missing a test of inference." One side cites Canons I; the other cites Against Fate I.
• 三表 review: each Mohist labels one belief about the Community as heard, inferred, or witnessed, and if it is only heard, says how they will shore it up this week.