Règle du débat dialectique
Tsou Yen (–340 ~–260)
In this way, the winner does not fail to make his point and the loser finds what he is seeking (Tsou YenGRAHAM 1978)
The disputation recognised throughout the world has ‘five wins and three arrivals, of which correctness in phrasing is the least. (*)
The disputant distinguishes separate kinds of things so that they do not interfere with each other, arranges in sequences different starting-points, so that they do not confuse each other, dredges his ideas and makes his meaning intelligible, and clarifies what he has to say; he shares his knowledge with others and does not busy himself with misleading them.
In this way, the winner does not fail to make his point and the loser finds what he is seeking.
When it comes to elaborating style in order to put up a pretence, adorning phases in order to make nonsense of the other’s case, using subtle comparisons to make it shift his ground, stretching what he litterally says so that he cannot get back to his own idea, to behave like this is harmful to the Great Way.
Engaging in tangled debates and competing to keep talking the longest cannot but be harmful to being a gentleman
Tsou YenGRAHAM 1978, p. 20-21
Tsou Yen (Zou Yan) (–340, ~–260) « joua un rôle déterminant dans le développement de la théorie du Yin-Yang et des cinq éléments (W), métal, bois, eau, feu, terre. La succession est régie par l’alternance du yin et du yang.
En Occident, Empédocle (présocratique) a élaboré la théorie des quatre éléments, dont seraient composés tous les objets constituant l’univers : Terre, Eau, Air, Feu.
1. “The disputers of the Tao” (Graham): Tsou-Yen inaugural program
• Warring States :
School of Forms and Names — hsing ming chia.
the ‘Dialecticians’ — pien che
• Han “school of names” ming chia
• Aussi :
des disputeurs, bianzhe
There was one group of philosophers which was known as the School of Names (ming chia) by Han scholars, but which during the Warring Stares period was generally known as the ‘School of Forms and Names (hsing ming chia),’ or as the ‘Dialecticians’ (pien che). Fung Yu-lan, History… T1 1952, p. 192
La tradition des “disputers”
Tsou Yen (Zou Yan) -340, -260(?)
« The least misleading appoach to Chinese disputation is through the thinkers who actually describe and operate the apparatus of disputation, the later Mohists.» (Graham, p.19-20)
Graham prend comme point de départ de cette tradition de disputers le “programme ” de Tsou Yen