Hexin: Preface to Introduction to Universal Evolution Logic

This book attempts to describe and investigate a special conceptual system in human thought—the "historical conceptual class set." ① This conceptual system (referred to by Hegel as the "Idea") ② emerges inevitably in the course of observing and describing the continuous morphological evolution of a given entity, namely its historical morphological development.

Possessing a special logical relationship and structure of a dynamic nature, this conceptual system transcends the established domains of both classical formal logic and modern mathematical logic.

Accordingly, research on historical conceptual class sets will ultimately lead to the establishment of a new type of logic: Universal Evolution Logic (U.E.L. system). The origins of this new logical type can be traced back to Heraclitus and Plato in the history of Greek philosophy, yet the first systematic and profound theoretical formulation was advanced by Hegel.

Hegel recognized the existence of this novel form of logic, which he termed "speculative logic" (Die Spekulative Logik). Grounded in the "self-movement of the concept," speculative logic, as Hegel understood it, frames the occurrence and evolutionary model of an event as a deductive reasoning process unfolding through a sequence of prerequisite conditions. Hegel stated: "The Idea is essentially a process"; "The existence of any Idea is an inference"; "The self-existent and self-actuating truth is the absolute unity of the concept (Begriff) and the object." ②

Hegel held that the conceptual logic and movement of concepts in the human mind are simulations of the self-movement of the objective concept (the object). The self-movement of the object, i.e., the ontological entity, engenders the spontaneous generation of the "Idea" system; the subjective conceptual system formed in the human mind via linguistic symbols is merely a reflection of the object and ontological concepts.

For Hegel, the Idea—the conceptual system processed by reason—is a self-completing system of concepts. In a sense, observing the evolutionary development of a thing amounts to the recursive cognition (self-knowledge) of the Idea unfolding its inherent concepts.

For more than two centuries, however, this new logic has never been understood or acknowledged by mainstream logicians. ② In the view of logical positivists represented by Russell, Hegel’s logic amounted to nothing more than logical mysticism. Apart from human thought, where could an independently subsisting "conceptual system" exist? If no such self-sufficient conceptual system exists apart from the human mind, how can there be any "self-movement of the concept"? ②

This study, by contrast, seeks to demonstrate that the "historical conceptual class set" is precisely the product of the "self-movement of the concept." In this sense, the present work constitutes a modern interpretation of Hegel’s theory of universal evolution logic.

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Supplementary Notes on Nomenclature & Academic Context

1. English Translations of the Term

◦ Original coinage by He Xin: Universal Evolution Logic, abbreviated U.E.L. (coined in the 1980s, featured in his early papers and monographs)

◦ Later academic/common rendering: Pan-Evolutionary Logic, abbreviated PEL (adopted in scholarly discourse and AI analyses; the Greek prefix pan- aligns with the semantic breadth of the Chinese "fan" [universal/all-encompassing], emphasizing the ontological and dynamic evolutionary dimension)

◦ The U.E.L. designation bears authoritative primacy for citations of He Xin’s early works (1980s papers, Introduction to Speculative Logic [2001], Introduction to Universal Evolution Logic [2005]); Pan-Evolutionary Logic is prevalent in later discussions of its philosophical and systemic implications.

2. Evolution of the Theoretical Framework

◦ Phase 1 (1980s): U.E.L. – the foundational theoretical framework centered on the "historical conceptual class set" and the "He Xin Tree" (a topological historical conceptual tree named by Qian Xuesen in a 1985 letter to He Xin, who proposed developing it into a "mathematical dialectical logic").

◦ Phase 2 (subsequent development): PEPC (Pan-Evolutionary Paraconsistent Calculus) – a formalized calculative extension of U.E.L. integrating paraconsistent logic, engineered for computational operability and predictive capacity.

3. Core Distinction from Mainstream Logic
Classical/formal and mathematical logic prioritize static extension, syntactic form, truth-value calculus, and isolated propositions/sets, abstracting away temporality, evolution, and historical context. Universal Evolution Logic, by contrast, centers on diachronic evolution, generative process, holistic systemic self-unfolding, and the unity of subject and object, repositioning logic as the immanent structure of thought grasping historical and developmental processes rather than a fixed set of syntactic rules. It functions as a complementary paradigm, addressing structural limitations of static logic in modeling complex diachronic systems (biological evolution, social history, cognitive development, conceptual genesis).

4. Textual Annotations
Superscript markers ① and ② in the original preface denote source citations, textual variants, and extended scholarly commentary; the preface itself serves as a programmatic manifesto, with formal axiomatization, case studies, and detailed application elaborated in the full volume.
Translation Conventions Followed

• Preserved original German terms (Die Spekulative Logik, Begriff) with contextual English glosses per philosophical convention;

• Retained specialized neologisms (historical conceptual class set, self-movement of the concept) as coined by He Xin and consistent with his academic lexicon;

• Maintained paragraph structure, rhetorical cadence, and the argumentative arc of the original Chinese preface;

• Rendered critical Hegelian dicta using standard English translations of Hegel’s works for terminological consistency in philosophical discourse.