research-article

“Outside Thinking” and “Horizontal Logic”

  • SHANG Jie
Expand
  • Institute of Philosophy, China Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing 100732, China

Published date: 05 Dec 2010

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Brill

Abstract

Metaphysics is a repeated act by way of “representation”; the instantaneous judgment is solidified, the inevitable conclusion is made, and at the same time other possibilities are excluded. “Outside thinking” is a blow to the spiritual tradition of metaphysics, which holds that “representation” will lead to a differential activity concerning the relationship between stranger things. Such relationship follows a kind of “horizontal logic,” the latter discards the presupposition on the “origin” of things, that is, it no longer presumes that this point or that point has greater privilege than “other points.” Things do not develop from a central point. Rather, things are the result of innumerable “points” in cooperative relationships between strangers. These cooperative relationships are arbitrary. In “horizontal logic,” many “starting points” or “spiritual T-points” are used as substitutes for a unique “origin.”

Cite this article

SHANG Jie . “Outside Thinking” and “Horizontal Logic”[J]. Frontiers of Philosophy in China, 2010 , 5(4) : 601 -620 . DOI: 10.1007/s11466-010-0117-z

Outlines

/