Gongsun Long

Gongsun Long was a member of the Logicians school of ancient Chinese philosophy. He also ran a school and enjoyed the support of rulers, and supported peaceful means of resolving disputes in contrast to the wars which were common in the period . However, little is known about the particulars of his life, and furthermore many of his writings have been lost. All of his essays, fourteen originally but only six still extant, are included in the book Gongsun Longzi .

He is best known for a series of paradoxes in the tradition of Hui Shi, including "White horses are not horses," "When no thing is not the pointed-out, to point out is not to point out," and "There is no 1 in 2."

White Horse Dialogue

In the ''White Horse Dialogue'' , one interlocutor defends the truth of the statement "White horses are not horses," while the other interlocutor disputes the truth of this statement. The argument plays upon an ambiguity in Chinese . The expression "X is not Y" can mean either
#"X is not a member of set Y"
#"X is not identical with Y"
"Whales are not mammals" and "You are not a philosopher" are examples of the former use of "is not." An example of the second use of "is not" is "Jimmy Olsen is not Superman." Normally, in Chinese and English, it is clear from context which sense is intended, so we do not notice the ambiguity. So the sentence "White horses are not horses" would normally be taken to assert the obviously false claim that white horses are not part of the group of horses. However, the "sophist" in the ''White Horse Dialogue'' defends the statement under the interpretation, "White horses are not identical with horses." The latter statement is actually true, since "horses" includes horses that are white, yellow, brown, etc., while "white horses" includes only white horses, and excludes the others.

This work has been viewed by some as a serious logical discourse, by others as a facetious work of sophistry, and finally by some as a combination of the two.

Other works

*指物論
*通變論
*堅白論
*名實論
*跡府 "Storehouse of Traces"