Please translate 實事求是

[ChiDragon]

Please translate this phrase: 實事求是

 

I was visiting a thousand year old university in Wunan(湖南) China last week. The phrase was handwritten by the principal of the university and carved on a plaque.

 

I was told that even Chairman Mao had attended the university.

Edited May 15, 2012 by ChiDragon

[ChiDragon]

實事求是

Translation:

Find out what it is from the truth of the matter.

 

Philosophy:

Do not say what it is because somebody else says that's what it is. Do not insert nor remove anything, in order, not to distort the facts.

[Informer]

實事求是

Translation:

Find out what it is from the truth of the matter.

 

Philosophy:

Do not say what it is because somebody else says that's what it is. Do not insert nor remove anything, in order, not to distort the facts.

 

Self-evident truth. The truth you can know without objective proof to present to another. The truth is yours alone, such as Descartes wrote "Cogito ergo sum" as an example of this. The following example is referring to proof as objective proof imo. I see subjective experience being equivalent to self-evident truth in regards to practices of MCO.

 

In epistemology (theory of knowledge), a self-evident proposition is one that is known to be true by understanding its meaning without proof.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-evidence

 

Saying something is true because another said it was true is called an "Appeal to Authority" in Philosophy.

 

The appeal to authority may take several forms. As a statistical syllogism, it will have the following basic structure:[1]

 

Most of what authority a has to say on subject matter S is correct.

a says p about S.

Therefore, p is correct.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_authority

 

I think the second one "Do not insert nor remove anything, in order, not to distort the facts.", is called Fallacy of Composition.

 

The fallacy of composition arises when one infers that something is true of the whole from the fact that it is true of some part of the whole (or even of every proper part). For example: "This fragment of metal cannot be broken with a hammer, therefore the machine of which it is a part cannot be broken with a hammer." This is clearly fallacious, because many machines can be broken into their constituent parts without any of those parts being breakable.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_composition

 

Don't know if that is what you were looking for, but may you find some useful non the less.

[ChiDragon]

informer....

 

You really standout to your own name. That was very informative. Thank you.

 

Yes, that phrase was an advice for us not to distort the actual fact. Stick to the idea of what it is by not adding nor removing any parts of the whole which might be leading to a misconception.

Edited May 23, 2012 by ChiDragon