Gongsun Long

Works

• c. 270 BCEGongsun Longzi (White Horse Dialogue)

  Dialogues on names and things; the most famous argues that “white horse” and “horse” do not name the same.

Position

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.

Life & context

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.

Further main works

• On Hard and White (Jianbai lun, chapter of the Gongsun Longzi)
• On Pointing and Things (Zhiwu lun, chapter of the Gongsun Longzi)