2026 May 28 14:00-15:30 Jana S. Rošker (University of Ljubljana) Time and Agency: Sublating Conceptions of the Future in St Augustine and the Later Mohist Canon

Our understanding of time, including the future, is grounded in a universal perception shared across cultures. However, the ways in which this universal perception is comprehended differ significantly, shaped by the linguistic structures of various languages and the broader culturally conditioned frameworks of reference they are part of. These differences in comprehension give rise to diverse models of the future, offering unique insights into alternative perspectives on the metaphysics of time and its relation to the philosophy of action. This paper explores these alternative perspectives through a comparative analysis of the Later Mohist view from ancient Chinese thought and St. Augustine’s introspective framework, influential in Western philosophy…  More>>

2026 May 28 16:00-17:30 Weijun Yu (余伟俊, Tsinghua University) The Logic of Shuo Zai in the Mohist Canons

The Mohists attached great importance to shuo 說 (“explanation”) and proposed the principle of “using explanations to bring out reasons” (以說出故). In the Mohist Canons, especially the Jingxia (Canon B), the sentence structure shuo zai 說在 + X appears frequently and may be regarded as a linguistic manifestation of this principle.

This talk begins with a brief comparison between shuo (“explanation”) and a group of related concepts—argument, justification, and proof—and then examines the function and grammar of shuo and shuo zai in Mohism. The presentation focuses on a systematic classification of the semantic types of the shuo zai structure and examines how it relates to core Mohist concepts such as lei 類(“kind”), gu 故(“reason/cause”), and li 理(“principle”).

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2026 May 7 14:00-15:30 Xin Li (李鑫, Tsinghua University) Blok-Esakia定理

本期进阶读书会将于 2026年5月7日（周四）14:00-15:30 在清华大学逻辑学中心举行，由清华大学李鑫同学报告 F. Wolter, M. Zakharyaschev 的文章 On the Blok-Esakia Theorem，介绍 Blok-Esakia 定理，展示 Blok 提出的代数证明；如有时间，还会介绍该定理在直觉主义模态逻辑中的扩展。More>>