غونغ سون لونغ

الأعمال

• نحو 270 ق.مغونغ سون لونغزي (حوار الحصان الأبيض)

  حوارات في الأسماء والأشياء؛ أشهرها يجادل بأن «الحصان الأبيض» و«الحصان» لا يسمّيان الشيء نفسه.

الموقف

Gongsun Long is the most famous logician of the School of Names. His best-known argument holds that “a white horse is not a horse”: “horse” names a shape, “white” a colour, and naming colour and shape together is not naming shape alone – ask for a horse and a yellow one will do, but not if you ask for a white horse. He also argues that a stone’s hardness and whiteness are separate, known by touch and by sight, and explores how names “point” to things (zhi). Whether he was a philosopher of language or a sophist is debated. Xunzi and the later Mohists rejected such arguments as confusing names.

الحياة والسياق

Gongsun Long was active in the 3rd century BCE; his dates (c. 325–250 BCE) are approximate. He came from the state of Zhao and served as a retainer of its prince, the Lord of Pingyuan. Sources report that he urged rulers to disarm and debated the white horse with Kong Chuan, a descendant of Confucius. Only part of his book survives, and some chapters may be later.

أعمال رئيسة أخرى

• Gongsun Longzi (White Horse Dialogue and other chapters, c. 3rd century BCE; six chapters survive, the authenticity of some disputed)
• On Hard and White (Jianbai lun, chapter of the Gongsun Longzi)
• On Pointing and Things (Zhiwu lun, chapter of the Gongsun Longzi)