Liu Zhimin
(College of Public Administration, Nanjing Agricultural University)
Abstract: By and large, currently there exist three kinds of different cognitive modes for the concept of "first-class university": that of overall comparison, the same type comparative and the same disciplines comparative.There is the paradox on either of these logic cognitive modes. The overall comparison type is a set of universities in the first level group, but the concept is the plight of a single shot function without reflecting its all connotation and traits. The same comparative type is in the same set of universities (for example, in the same specific sector, professional level,layer etc.) with a first rate strength, but the dilemma for it is that the approaching genus concept "university" is deterioted with subversion of the principle "extension of proportionality" , making a logical error of "narrow definition". The disciplines comparative type is the set of universities with first-rate discipline among all universities, but the logic plight for it is subverting the logical definition limitation principle "extension of proportionality" .The relationship between the set of domain and that of co-domain is of partial function. It is very difficult to quantify its border and unify its standard. Therefore, diverse cognition and multi-standards will be inevitable. It’s better to utilize the term "TOP X University" to replace the concept "first class university".
Key Words: First-class unive rsity; cognition; logics; dilemma