Work · East Asian Philosophy
Gongsun Longzi (White Horse Dialogue)
Dialogues on names and things; the most famous argues that “white horse” and “horse” do not name the same.
Introduction
A short text under Gongsun Long’s name, of which six chapters survive from a larger work; the first is a later account of him, and the authenticity of some others is disputed. The best-known chapter, “On the White Horse”, is a dialogue between an objector and a defender of the thesis that “a white horse is not a horse”. Other chapters deal with “pointing and things” (how names refer), “hard and white” (whether a stone’s hardness and whiteness can be separated) and “names and actualities”. Whether these are serious analyses of language, logical puzzles or sophistry has been debated since Xunzi; modern interpreters such as A. C. Graham and Chad Hansen proposed rival readings, Hansen in terms of mass nouns.
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