Shelving the Critique of the Ideographic Myth
Last year I started this blog with the intent of engaging proponents of the Critique of the Ideographic Myth. For those new to the blog, the Critique entails denial of the thesis that Chinese characters are ideographic in nature. Though the notion is an old one, the Critique is particularly associated with the recently deceased John DeFrancis and, to a slightly lesser degree, Victor Mair and J. Marshall Unger.
I noted that DeFrancis' thesis is riddled with logical fallacies: Faulty generalization, suppressed evidence, the appeal to authority, circular reasoning, and the false dilemma.
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