Gongsun Long

Gongsun Long was a Chinese thinker of the Warring States period, associated with the School of Names (mingjia) and said to have served as a retainer of the Lord of Pingyuan in the state of Zhao. He is known above all for the White Horse dialogue, which defends the claim that 'a white horse is not a horse'. How that claim should be read, whether as a point about reference, about part and whole, or as sophistry, is strongly disputed, and the authenticity of parts of the surviving text is also debated.

Key ideas

• 'White horse' and 'horse' do not name the same thing, so in some sense a white horse is not a horse.
• Names must correspond correctly to what they pick out, a concern with naming shared across Chinese philosophy.
• The relation between things and what words point to (zhi) is itself a philosophical problem.
• Properties such as hardness and whiteness can be considered separately from the things that have them.

Major works

• Gongsun Longzi (the surviving text attributed to him; authenticity of parts disputed)
• "White Horse Discourse" (Baima lun), a chapter of the Gongsun Longzi
• "Discourse on Pointing and Things" (Zhiwu lun), a chapter of the Gongsun Longzi

In the conversation

• Discussion ‘Killing robbers is not killing people’: the Later Mohists on inferences that fail Chen Yuting · 5 replies