You want Mèngzi [ −300s Chinese quasi-anti-Machiavellian ] [silly Latinization Mencius], Ibn Sina [ 900s Islamic Aristotelian who wrote on medicine ] [silly Latinization Avicenna], and the Nyaya and Vaiśeṣika schools [ 100-1000 Hindu analytic philosophy ] [if possible try the Praśastapāda [ c600 ]].
Edit: Also the linguist Pāṇini [ −600s − 300s linguist, from whom Chomsky’s immediate predecessors pretty much cribbed the concept of a metalanguage wholesale; BNF was almost named “Pāṇini Backus Form” ].
You want Mèngzi [ −300s Chinese quasi-anti-Machiavellian ] [silly Latinization Mencius], Ibn Sina [ 900s Islamic Aristotelian who wrote on medicine ] [silly Latinization Avicenna], and the Nyaya and Vaiśeṣika schools [ 100-1000 Hindu analytic philosophy ] [if possible try the Praśastapāda [ c600 ]].
Edit: Also the linguist Pāṇini [ −600s − 300s linguist, from whom Chomsky’s immediate predecessors pretty much cribbed the concept of a metalanguage wholesale; BNF was almost named “Pāṇini Backus Form” ].