Philosopher during the Warring States Period and the main representative of Legalism. A Korean from a noble family, he spread Xunzi's works to the Qin State and was praised by Qin King Ying Zheng. Later, he was framed and imprisoned by Qin ministers Li Si and Yao Jia, and was forced to commit suicide. His works are preserved in the book "Han Feizi". The highest category of Han Fei's philosophical thought is Tao. He transformed Laozi's concept of Tao so that it had objective material content. It is believed that Tao is the basis for the occurrence and development of all things in the world. It is also reflected in various things, restricting the four seasons of nature and social and human affairs. It is an objective law reflected in the generation, development and demise of objective things. Han Fei also emphasized giving full play to human subjective initiative and advocated transforming and utilizing nature to serve mankind. Han Fei made great contributions to dialectics.
He initiated the "theory of contradiction". Han Fei believed that the so-called contradictions are two aspects that are opposed to each other. Contradictions and oppositions are universal. He listed opposite categories such as "short and long, big and small, square and round, hard and crisp, light and heavy, white and black", pointing out that contradictions have various manifestations. This is true in nature, and social life is also full of contradictions. Han Fei advocated a comprehensive analysis of the two contradictory aspects, weighing the pros and cons, distinguishing the priorities, and then deciding on the trade-off. Han Fei believes that the status of the two conflicting parties is not fixed and can be transformed under certain conditions. Han Fei pays great attention to the conditions for the transformation of contradictions. He believes that the transformation of disasters and blessings depends to a large extent on the thoughts and behaviors of the parties involved. The transformation of a country from strength to weakness depends on whether there is a strict legal system. Among the conditions that lead to the transformation of contradictions, internal factors certainly play a decisive role, and the role of external factors cannot be ignored. In terms of epistemology, Han Fei advocated that knowledge is a reflection of objective objects. He emphasized the purpose and functionality of knowledge, believed that all speech must be targeted, and opposed rhetoric that was divorced from reality. Han Fei's contribution to epistemology is also to put forward the point of view of "experimentation".
He believes that whether people's words are reliable and whether their opinions are correct should be verified based on the actual situation and actual effectiveness, as well as analysis, comparison and other means. Han Fei's view of social history has two distinctive characteristics: First, he emphasizes the evolution of society, pays attention to the current reality, and opposes the retroism of "what is ancient and not modern"; on the other hand, he attaches great importance to the role of material factors in the development of social history. role, trying to explore the material causes of social change. Han Fei's ethical thoughts are an integral part of his "rule of law" theory. Han Fei abstracted the selfishness of the landlord class into universal "human nature" and believed that everyone is "self-interested" (self-interested), all human actions are self-interested, and there is no such thing as "benevolence" or "thief" (good or evil) ) moral beliefs have no moral value. From this point of view, he advocated "taking officials as teachers" and "taking the law as teaching" and denied the social role of morality and ethics. Therefore, Han Fei is said to be an amoralist
Han Fei discussed formal and nominal logic based on his political thoughts. In Han Fei's view, in order to realize the rule of magic, the first issue is to clarify legal concepts and determine legal standards. He put forward two propositions: "Examine names to locate them, and distinguish them clearly to distinguish categories." They required examining the meaning of names and identifying the categories of things. Here lies the germ of ideas of definition and division. Han Fei's greatest contribution to logic is the "theory of contradiction", the essence of which is that two propositions with incompatible relationships cannot both be true. It cleverly expresses the spiritual essence of the law of contradiction and sharply raises the problem of self-contradiction. Han Fei's formal and nominal logic is an important part of pre-Qin logic. The "examination of names" and "clear division" proposed by him have certain theoretical significance. His idea of ??"experimentation" promoted the development of ancient inductive logic, and the theory of contradiction enriched the theory of logical laws. However, because Han Fei entangled his logical thoughts with his political thoughts, it greatly affected his deeper exploration of the form of thinking.
Han Fei’s philosophical thoughts also have great limitations. His "theory of contradiction" made the contradictions absolute because of too much emphasis on the struggle of opposites. He believed that any contradictory two sides absolutely "cannot exist in the same world", and made "the emperor and his ministers have different paths" and "the superiors and the subordinates have different ideas." war" conclusion. In terms of epistemology, he showed a narrow pragmatism tendency while emphasizing the function and purpose of knowledge. In terms of his view of history, he insisted on the heroic view of history in which the emperor determined the course of social history, and despised the role of the masses.