Chapter 68 <Sun is far and Chang'an is near or is the sun near and Chang'an is far>

"Book of Jin" records a story of Emperor Ming of Jin when he was a child: Emperor Jin Ming, who was only a few years old, was playing with his father one day when he happened to meet an envoy from Chang'an. Dad asked him: Which one is closer to you, the sun or Chang'an?The son replied: Chang'an is near.Because I have never heard of anyone coming from the side of the sun, isn't it proof?Dad was very happy to hear that, and wanted to show off his son in public. The next day, I asked him again in front of many ministers: Which one is closer to you, the sun or Chang'an?The sun is near me.The child suddenly changed his answer.

Dad was surprised, so he asked him: "Why are you different from what you said yesterday?"Son: Why do you say the sun is near me?Because I can see the sun when I look up, but I can't see Chang'an!After hearing this, the officials all fawned over him and praised what he said was reasonable. The day is far away and Changan is near and the day is near and Changan is far away. These are two judgments with opposing relations. If they cannot be both true, there must be a false one.Emperor Jin Ming, who was only a few years old, wanted to prove that they were all true, so he was a little sophist.In fact, both of his arguments are wrong.When he argues that the sun is far and safe, he cites the reason that I have not heard of anyone coming from the side of the sun.This reason is combined with Ri Yuan Chang An Jin to form an omitted syllogism, which restores the omitted major premise: any place where no one has heard of people coming from is closer to us than the place where people have heard of people coming from. Far.

Using this major premise as a standard to measure how far things are from us cannot be established, and the major premise is false (although the conclusion is true).At that time, Jianye (now Nanjing) was the capital of the Jin Dynasty. If the above criteria were used, then in Jianye it was heard that someone came from Chang'an (now Xi'an), but no one was heard from Luoyang. This can prove that Luoyang is farther away from Jianye than Is Changan farther away from Jianye? When Emperor Jin Ming argued that the sun was near Chang'an and far away, the reason cited was that I could see the sun when I looked up, but I couldn't see Chang'an.This reason, combined with the nearness of the day and the farthest, also constitutes an omitted syllogism, which restores the omitted premise: everything that I can see is closer to me than things that cannot be seen.

Using this major premise as a standard to measure how far things are from us is also untenable, and it is also a mistake that the major premise is false.The ancients said: The eyes can see thousands of miles, but they cannot see their own eyebrows.If you use the above criteria, you will come to a very absurd conclusion: the distance between my eyebrows and me is farther than things thousands of miles away, than the sun I can see. A notable characteristic of sophists is their great subjective arbitrariness in their argumentation.Regardless of the actual situation, they just put forward one kind of argument in defense of a point of view at will, and another kind of argument can prove the correct point of view to the contrary.