Chapter 40 Jin Yuelin: The Logic of Fracture (1)

Jin Yuelin (1895-1984), courtesy name Longsun, was born in Changsha, Hunan Province, a philosopher and logician. Xu Zhimo described his friend Jin Yuelin who studies logic in this way: "Mr. Jin's hobby is to pick up a noun's hair and hold it patiently in his hand to give points. He can stop eating for a while, but this hair is so thick that it is disgusting. , you can’t feel comfortable unless you split it open..." Jin Yuelin lectured on logic. Some students felt that this subject was very boring, so they asked him curiously: Why do you want to engage in logic?Professor Jin replied: "I think it is very interesting."

When Southwest Associated University, Jin Yuelin offered an elective course "Symbolic Logic".For many people, listening to this course is like listening to heaven.Therefore, every time a class is held, there are only a few sporadic people in the classroom.One of the students named Wang Hao is an exception, and he can quite understand the mystery.Jin Yuelin often stopped during the lecture and asked, "Wang Hao, what do you think?" So, the next class became a dialogue between the teacher and the student. Wang Hao later went to the United States to study and became a world-class logician.As Jin Yuelin's most proud student, he sighed that most of Mr. Jin's articles and three monographs were completed before the end of 1948.

Wang Hao wrote an article "Mr. Jin Yuelin's Road". He believes: "Mr. Jin pursued two very different ideals before and after 1949. Both ideals are worth recommending and pursuing today. But I I don't think that a person can pursue such a pair of ideals that are difficult to have at the same time. "The ideal after 1949 can be said to use philosophy as an ideological weapon to directly serve the needs of the country at present. The ideal before 1949 is to use philosophy as a specialized study to gradually expand the latecomers. vision and improve their spiritual life.

"The abilities and preparations required to approach these two ideals are very different. Therefore, if a person concentrates on pursuing one ideal for many years and suddenly turns to another ideal in the middle, it may not be easy to achieve the results that can be achieved by continuing to pursue one ideal." In 1958, Jin Yuelin participated in a cultural delegation to visit Britain.Wang Hao was teaching at Oxford University at the time, so he arranged for the teacher to give a short report at the Oxford Philosophy Teachers' Association.Jin Yuelin said that because Marxism saved China, he gave up the academic philosophy he studied before and turned into a Marxist.

According to Wang Hao's recollection, most of the teachers who attended the lecture felt that such an argument was too simple, "but because Mr. Jin's British English is particularly elegant and beautiful, most teachers in Oxford respect him very much." It is difficult for Jin Yuelin's philosophical colleagues to fully understand the "logical argument" he gave for his own transformation, and many researchers today also find it difficult to understand his subsequent transformation.Because as "the most stubborn individualistic philosopher" ever, Jin Yuelin's past infers his later transformation, which "lacks a reasonable logical process".

In 1922, Jin Yuelin, who was still studying abroad, published a long article "Excellent Elements and Today's Society" in China.In the article, he first hopes that intellectuals can become "independent income earners". "My income from running a shaving shop is much more independent than that of the Secretary of the Ministry of Communications, so instead of being an official, it is better to open a shaving shop than work in the ministry. It’s better to sing at the fruit stand than to flatter a horse in the house.” Second, I hope that intellectuals will not be officials, that is, “not be politicians, and not regard being an official as a profession...to live their own lives independently.”