Chinese Studies on Informal Logic and Critical Thinking—An Overview

This article traces the developmental trajectory of informal logic and critical thinking in mainland China. It surveys the current developmental situation relating to their curricula, the establishment of teaching material, translations of leading works in these fields, academic writings, dissertations, research organizations and so on. Furthermore, the present article particularly aims to cast some light on the important shifts of research trends in informal logic and critical thinking, from those being introduced from outside to those moving in the opposite direction. Finally, it will also address the currently existing inad-equacies and expectations for the future development of these fields of study in China.


The Introduction of Informal Logic and Critical Thinking to China
The beginnings of the informal logic (IL) can be tracked back to the 1970s, when American and Canadian studies in informal logic developed as a result of critiques of baby logic. However, in the initial period of reinstatement of logical education, Chinese logicians still rarely had the opportunity to come in contact with Anglophone literature on IL. Instead, they derived their lessons about the notions of argument and fallacy from the parts on "logic and language" (including "fallacy") contained in introductions to standard logic (a model representative of baby logic). Because theory of fallacy is in fact an addition to the theory of proof, its two main characteristics-that is the diversification of types of argument and contextualization of argument assessment-easily leads scholars towards IL. Therefore, such research on the theory of fallacy naturally turned into the beginning of rise of IL in Chinese academia. In 1984, during his travels in China, John Nolt, a professor at the University of Tennessee, paid a brief visit to Nanjing Institute of Technology (Southeast University). When he was talking about "IL in China", this was in fact equivalent to speaking about "IL is not in China": although the Chinese philosophers who engaged in a conversation with Nolt were "surprisingly well-informed about recent Western developments", none of them "had yet heard of IL" (Nolt 1984, 45). Four years later, however, the situation in Chinese academia had already changed.
It is highly probable that the early use of the term "informal logic" in the Chinese literature can be traced back to the year 1988 (Ding and Wu 1988, 28). From this year onwards, for almost 20 years the theory of fallacy represented the heart of Chinese research on IL. In this period of time, more than one hundred research articles and popular essays were published in scientific periodicals. In addition to that, Chinese academia also saw the publication of four treatises on the theory of fallacy: Fallacy: The Pitfall of Thinking (Miuwu: siwei de xianjing 谬误：思维的 陷阱, written by Ding Huang 丁煌 and Wu Hongzhi 武宏志 (1990)); In Search for the Misty Regions: The Quintessence of the Science of Fallacies (Wuqu de xunmi: miuwuxue jinghua 雾区的寻觅：谬误学精华, by Huang Huaxin 黄华新 and Tang Jun 汤军 (1990)); On Fallacy (Miuwulun 谬误论, by Huang Huaxin, Ding Huang and Wu Hongzhi (1993)), and Studies on Fallacies (Miuwu yanjiu 谬误 研究, by Wu Hongzhi and Ma Yongxia 马永侠 (1996)). Between the years 1994 and 2010, Huang Zhanji 黄展骥 1 published almost 80 articles on the theory of 1 Huang Zhanji carries on the scientific spirit of his teacher Yin Haiguang 殷海光. Since 1966 he has devoted himself to the public teaching of logic and the theory of fallacy. The five volumes of the best-selling Hong Kong published "Snail Series" (Woniu congshu 蜗牛丛书) represents an anthological collection of several hundred of his lectures, a course of popular lectures issued in the form of a television series, newspaper columns and articles, as well as scientific articles and essays. fallacy in various Chinese scientific journals. By combining Chinese traditional culture and everyday life, Huang carried out an analysis of fallacies of argumentation in natural languages and established a link between this kind of research and research on logical paradoxes. At the same time, he also enthusiastically assisted younger scholars, in particular doctoral students, in their research on the theory of fallacy. Around 2002, the majority of scholars of in the field of theory of fallacy shifted their attention to research on the fundamental theory of IL, because they discovered that in order to solve the problem of fallacies they had to rely on a complete foundational theory of logic of argument.
The first specialized text that provided an introduction to IL as a new branch of logic emerged in 1990 (Wang Zuoli 1990 In the wake of the advances in research on the theory of fallacy and IL, the opportunities and means to learn from international experiences increased considerably. Through such experiences, Chinese scholars discovered that, regardless of whether critical thinking (CT) and IL were closely interrelated in their historical origins and theoretical foundations, in the final instance both of them focused on the common educational ideal. In this respect, the possibility emerged that Among these works, his manner of distinguishing between "argument x" and "fallacy x", or his analysis of linguistic fallacies, were not inferior to the theories advanced by the contemporary American and Canadian experts in the theory of fallacy.
2 Apart from that, Ruan Song also published three further articles on informal logic in other Chinese periodicals (Ruan 1991;. CL and IL represented a new way, path, and methodology conjoining logical education with pedagogics. In this way, quite expectedly, they became among the special points of interest of logical research and education science in 21st century. Although the term "critical thinking" appeared in China earlier than the term "informal logic", in around 1985, its full and exact introduction and research did not arrive until the 21st century. In the academic circle of logic, several important events occurred that contributed to the promotion of research in IL and CT. shi wu" yanjiu zhuangkuang yu "shiyi wu" fazhan qushi 国家哲学社会科学"十五"研究状况与"十一五"发展趋势) also provided an overview of research in logic in the framework of the 10th Five-Year Plan, as well as the new research trends as planned for the 11th Five-Year Plan, in which IL and CT together was "regarded as a young scientific branch, whose practical significance obtained a wide-ranged and ample attention", "in the following five years, the main focal directions ought to include … critical thinking", establishing "critical thinking and logic" as one of the main subjects of the developmental plan for the science of logic, and "research of the function and application of logic in critical thinking" (Quanguo zhexue shehui kexue guihua bangongshi 2006, 345). As things currently stand, the fact that IL and CT are the objects of intensive attention within national research plans has set the foundation for the rapid development of both fields in the near future.
Although the systemic theories of IL and CT are foreign creations, China also has its own native resources. With argumentation as its core, ancient Chinese logic emphasized a non-deductive style of argument and the context of argument. Regarding textbooks, there also exists a tradition of expositions on argument and the principle of sufficient reason. The article "On the Logical Analysis of Texts and the Question of Logical Teaching" (Lun wenzhang de luoji fenxi yu luoji jiaoxue wenti 论文章的逻辑分析与逻辑教学问题), 3 authored by the Logic Teaching and Research Section of Renmin University of China and published in the journal Teaching and Research (Jiaoxue yu yanjiu 教学与研究 (1958, No. 10)), voiced an appeal that teaching of logic should be connected to the "actual thinking practice" of humans, criticizing traditional logic for its use of artificial material to explain logical knowledge and the lack of logical analysis of levels of discourse.
The article further indicated that in practice when using our knowledge of traditional formal logic we do not know where to start an analysis of narrative or expressive texts, while, as an alternative, it proposed a procedure for analysing the structure of thought, which would emphasize the formal diversity and richness of expression of inferences, judgments, concepts, and their relations. By observing grammar, rhetoric, and logic, as well as some forms of inference that exceed the analytical capacity of instruments of traditional logic, the article's intention was to open up "a new lively way of practice of logical teaching" or "a new direction in logical teaching" (Logic Teaching and Research Section 1958, 14). Twenty years later, these ideas from 1958 were implemented and advanced in the work Logic of Speaking and Text Writing (Shuohua xie wenzhang de luoji 说话写文章的逻辑), which expressed doubt about interpreting logic as formal logic, while explicitly suggesting that logic of spoken and written language should include both logic of reasoning and argument, as well as logic of description and narration (Wang, Zhang and Zhang 1980, 6-7). The research on narrative argument and narrative rationality, conducted in the international research on argumentation from 1989 onwards, confirmed the earlier views of Wang Fangming and others. Soon afterwards, certain treatises on discourse and textual logic (Wang and Zhao 1982;Sun Zupei 1986;Chen Zongming 1989) (2016)) considered literary analysis from the practical perspective of critical thinking and writing, regarding critical writing as an extremely effective way of practicing logic and training one's capacity to perform critical thinking.

The Overall Situation of Research on IL and CT in China
Akin to the situation in the US and Canada, from the initial introduction of the elementary knowledge on symbolic logic into Chinese university textbooks questions like "what ought to be taught in the framework of university logic?" and "how does it have to be taught?" were always under consideration. At the turn of the century both IL and CT gained a foothold in mainland China, and "the third way" of reforms of logical teaching, that is a general curriculum consisting of CT as an objective and using IL as a means, was also promoted. The proposal to "polarize" logical teaching-educating experts in logic deals with deep learning and research of modern logic and the all-round education with intensively generalized education in CT-also followed suit (Zhou and Mao2003;Zhou 2014). Following in the same line, a profusion of different curricula and textbooks of the IL and CT type also emerged. Apart from these developments, since 1997 logic has been listed as an exam subject for MBA entrance exams (drawing from the methods of American GRE, GMAT and LSAT). While the content of this kind of exam in logic has got even closer to IL and CT over the years, the university curriculum in logic has not adapted to this kind of training. This produced an external stimulus for the reformation of logical teaching.
In his work Argument and Analysis-The Practical Use of Logic (Lunzheng yu fenxi -luoji de yingyong 论证与分析--逻辑的应用 (2000)), Gu Zhenyi linked together the knowledge of traditional logic with the practical training in argument analysis, providing the first systematic response to the new needs. Starting in 2003, he also took the initiative by establishing a course on "Logic and Critical Thinking" at the China Youth University of Political Studies and Peking University. Based on the lecture notes for this course, together with Liu Zhuanghu he co-authored the textbook A Course in Critical Thinking (Pipanxing siwei jiaocheng 批判性思维教程 (2006)). Almost at the same time, lecturers in logic at the China University of Political Science and Law, East China Normal University, Yan'an University and other institutions also started organizing elite courses on CT, in particular general elective courses on the subject. In the past few years, Huazhong University of Science and Technology hired the Canadian scholar Dr. Dong Yu 董毓 as a visiting lecturer, who started the first course on CT at the university, providing an impetus for the development of teaching CT within every academic discipline, which in turn brought about a very favourable demonstration effect at the national level. Shantou University, on the other hand, offered its integrative thinking program (creative thinking + critical thinking + systemic thinking) of "Comprehensive Training System for Thinking" to all of its students. Chinese education relating to IL and CT also has certain special characteristics. Due to the restrictions in specialized study programs at Chinese universities, according to which one is not allowed to alter the titles of courses already listed in individual programs, it is not so simple to completely replace the compulsory courses on logic with IL or CT. As a result of this, there emerged at Chinese universities numerous courses entitled "Logic and Critical Thinking". Sometimes it is even the case that lecturers are only allowed to fill occasional gaps which appear in the course of carrying out the general course on logic with content related to IL or CT. As regards the establishment of textbooks, IL has been blended into the content relating to CT. Led by a certain notion of CT, in their book Critical Thinking (Pipanxing siwei 批判性思维 (2010; 2016)), Wu Hongzhi and Zhou Jianwu constructed a relatively complete system of argument logic. The book The Principles and Methods of Critical Thinking-Towards a New Cognition and Practice (Pipanxing siwei yuanli he fangfa -zouxiang xin de renzhi he shijian 批判性思 维原理和方法--走向新的认知和实践 (2010; 2017)), written by Dong Yu, provided a broader perspective on the transition from the consumer of knowledge to the producer of knowledge, creating a fusion between analytical, clear, real, adequate, optimal, in-depth thinking and dialectical thinking, which is not anymore limited to the scope of logic and corresponds to a form of general curriculum that oversteps the constraints of conventional logical curricula. Apart from such publications, recent years have also seen the publication of popular readers on this topic (e.g. Xie (2017); Dong (2017) (2013) In the field of CT, the doctoral dissertations started to appear earlier, such as a dissertation entitled "A Study in Theory of Critical Thinking and Its Evaluation Techniques (Pipanxing siwei lilun jiqi ceping jishu yanjiu 批判性思 维理论及其测评技术研究" (Luo Qingxu 2002)). Afterwards, however, only a few dissertations were published that researched topics such as fostering the CT skills of university students (Liu Yi 2010;Tian Dan, 2012;Huang Fang 2013), the relationship between CT and creative thinking (Zhu Rui 2017), designing courses on CT (Huang Cunliang 2019), and the use of CT in judicial practice (Yu Hui 2017 , which is currently in the making, will also include a certain number of new entries from IL and CT. Furthermore, the first (1990), third (2000) and sixth (2015) Jin Yuelin Awards were all given to studies on IL and CT. At the same time, quite a lot of research projects on IL and CT were subsidized by the National Social Science Fund of China. More importantly, in the same period of time a considerable number of impressive scientific articles on IL and CT were published in significant domestic periodicals, while outstanding works on IL and CT were also often reprinted in the Logic (Luoji 逻辑) full-text series published by the Information Centre for Social Science of Renmin University of China. The main annual conference on CT (which also includes teacher trainings) is "The National Discussion Forum on Critical Thinking and Innovative Education" (Quanguo pipanxing siwei he chuangxin jiaoyu yantaohui 全国批判性思维和创新教育研讨会), which has already been held nine times and has an extremely wide influence. Although national conferences specialized exclusively on IL are still few in number, major conferences on logic, such as the General Assembly of Chinese Association of Logic, conferences of the Branch for Formal Logic, conferences on legal logic, legal method and legal rhetoric, and so on, usually include special panels on IL and CT. The special committee for logical education, established in 2017 in the framework of Chinese Association of Logic, strives to advance a harmonious fusion between all-round education and logical thinking, actively promoting work related to education in CT in primary and secondary education. In cooperation with the Renmin University of China Press, the committee also released the "Critical Thinking and Foundational Education Curricula Book Series" (Pipanxing siwei yu jichu jiaoyu kecheng jiaoxue congshu 批判性思维与基础教育课程教学丛书, edited by Lin Shengqiang and Zhong Haixia 2019). Currently, there exists very favourable momentum for the use of IL and CT in fields like legal logic and legal methodology, as a consequence of which both have had significant impacts on these fields.
A major event in Chinese advances in CT, which is worth remembering for the future, is that in 2021, the Shanghai Education Publishing House started issuing China's first periodical specialized on CT, the Journal of Critical Thinking Education (Pipanxing siwei jiaoyu yanjiu 批判性思维教育研究, issued annually). This will inevitably become the frontline publication for research on CT in China, the central platform for disseminating essential information, the main window for presenting cutting-edge achievements in the field, and one of the most significant nodes in the development of the field in China.

Integrating into the International Academic Circles
In the last 10 years, the statistically significant standards of the development of Chinese research of IL and CT have undergone a gradual improvement from simple "introduction from the outside" to the concurrent undertaking of highend import and export of ideas. This process has been manifesting itself in the following six aspects: 2. An increasing number of Chinese researchers and PhD students visit major centres of research in the US, Canada and the Netherlands to engage in elementary and advanced studies or take part in cooperative research projects. At these leading institutions they are able to learn from the best scholars in the fields IL and CT, and advance in their studies in a straight line towards the very frontiers of these fields.
3. Frequent appearances of Chinese researchers at international conferences on IL and CT. The quadrennial international Conference of Argumentation organized by the International Society for the Study of Argumentation (ISSA), the annual meeting of the Canadian Association for Informal Logic and Critical Thinking (AILACT), as well as the biennial conference of Ontario Society for the Study of Argumentation (OSSA), are all often attended by Chinese scholars, who present their research reports and papers. Lastly, the 10th Conference of the ISSA will be held between June 28 and July 1, 2022, at Jiangsu University (Zhenjiang, China). international academic circles, but is also able to contribute original views on the most pressing problems arising as part of the latest advances in science. Thus, for instance, in the past few years the problem of conductive argument became one of the focal points of current scientific advances. Regarding this problem Jin Rongdong 晋荣东 (2011), Xie Yun (2017) and Hans V. Hansen,9 in which he set out to provide a general narrative on the most recent developments in IL and the theory of argumentation.

Concluding Remarks
As predicted more than 30 years ago by John Nolt, the teaching and research of IL has huge potential at Chinese universities--if more Chinese people were 7 His paper "Conductive Argument as a Mode of Strategic Maneuvering" received the 2017 AILACT award for an academic article.
to participate in the field of IL, they would undoubtedly bring about new ideas which would offer enormous enrichment for our branch of science (Nolt 1984, 45). The overview presented above shows that these predictions have actually come true. However, we must also remain clear-headed and recognize our own shortcomings (Chen Bo 2018, 679). Some authors simply "renamed" textbooks on traditional logic or introductory logic so that they appeared to be textbooks on IL and CT. Such textbooks, that made no real use of elementary concepts from IL and CT, revealed a poor grasp of the fundamental spirit of IL and CT. How to appropriately treat the relationship between logic, especially formal logic, on the one hand, and IL and CT on the other, has become the crucial point of CT teaching. At the same time, monographs systematically researching IL and CT are still very few in number, while there is an even greater lack of treatises written in English or translations of Chinese works into foreign languages. We still look forward to works similar to those created by renowned scholars such as Trudy Govier, Ralph H. Johnson, Douglas Walton, and James B. Freeman. Apart from that, research on the Chinese tradition of argumentation or developmental history of Chinese logic which would derive from the perspective of IL is worth attempting. On the other hand, the strength and intensity of research in IL and CT is still insufficient, for China still has no academic organization specializing in research on IL and CT. Among young scholars who have finished their doctoral dissertations on IL and CT, there are quite a few who, after their promotion, stop working in these fields.
Observing from a more holistic perspective, unlike in many other countries the Chinese educational authorities still have not responded to the initiative raised by the United Nations, namely to institute CT as the objective of education and to put cultivating student's CT into the strategic plans for the development of national education and introduce it among the principal standards of education. We can only hope that, someday in the future, the requirements for CT will first be carried out within the K-12 education system. I firmly believe that, along with the drive to establish a law-based society in China, the research on IL and CT will also usher in a golden age of self-development.
English translation by Jan Vrhovski.