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26-512: The School of Names , or School of Forms and Names , is a school of thought of Chinese philosophy that grew out of Mohist logic. Sometimes termed Logicians or Sophists modernly, Han scholars used it in reference to figures earlier termed Disputers in the Zhuangzi , as a view seemingly dating back to the Warring States period ( c.  479  – 221 BC). Rather than

52-451: A central tenet of both Legalist statecraft and its Huang–Lao derivatives. Rather than having to look for "good" men, mingshi or xingming can seek the right man for a particular post, though doing so implies a total organizational knowledge of the regime. More simply though, it can allow ministers to "name" themselves through accounts of specific cost and time frame, leaving their definition to competing ministers. Claims or utterances "bind

78-442: A common colloquialism which is used to describe those that think alike or those that focus on a common idea. The term's use is common place. Schools are often characterized by their currency, and thus classified into "new" and "old" schools. There is a convention, in political and philosophical fields of thought, to have "modern" and "classical" schools of thought. An example is the modern and classical liberals . This dichotomy

104-613: A myriad ages it will not be exhausted", resembles Zeno's paradoxes . However, some of their other aphorisms seem contradictory or unclear when taken out of context, for example, "dogs are not hounds". As with the Legalists , Sinologist Kidder Smith highlights the mixed posthumous reception received by the school of names. Already opposed by the Later Mohists in their own era for their paradoxes, many of them, despite being remembered as sophists, would also have been administrators, with Hui Shi

130-532: A prime minister, while Gongsun Long was a diplomat and peace activist, as typical of the Mohists . Shen Buhai under the "Legalists" may not have even been familiar with Shang Yang's doctrine, but likely was familiar with "school of names" type debates on language and the correlation between the names and realities of things, with language useful in administration. In the Han dynasty secretaries of government who had charge of

156-527: A relativist. He uses Confucianism to defend the White Horse Dialogue , believed in kindness and duty, and has a rectification of names doctrine aimed at actualities and social order rather than relativism. Willing to argue either side of an issue, they were taken as sophist by their critics, but some arguments were not necessarily intended to be paradoxical, even if their logic is heterodox by mainstream Mohist standards. A contemporary of Confucius and

182-545: A unified movement like the Mohists, it represents a social category of early linguistic debaters. Some arguments in later Mohist texts would appear directed at their kind of debates. Figures associated with it include Deng Xi , Yin Wen , Hui Shi , and Gongsun Long . A Three Kingdoms era figure, Xu Gan , is relevant for discussions of names and realities, but was more Confucian and less relativist. Including figures referenced by

208-405: Is not a horse" is parallel to "a sword is not a weapon," but the "Sophist" is treating the statement as parallel to "a sword is not a blade." Other interpretations have been put forward by Fung Yu-lan and Chad Hansen, among 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. He

234-495: Is not the pointed-out, to point out is not to point out", and "there is no 1 in 2". These paradoxes seem to suggest a similarity to the discovery in Greek philosophy that pure logic may lead to apparently absurd conclusions. Although not done justice by English translation, professor Zhenbin Sun considers Gongsun Long’s work on ming-shi, or name and reality, the most "profound and systematic" of

260-607: Is often a component of paradigm shift . However, it is rarely the case that there are only two schools in any given field. Schools are often named after their founders such as the " Rinzai school " of Zen , named after Linji Yixuan ; and the Asharite school of early Muslim philosophy , named after Abu l'Hasan al-Ashari . They are often also named after their places of origin, such as the Ionian school of philosophy , which originated in Ionia ;

286-439: Is to fall into disorder. To remain in order is to be correct. What is correct is used to rectify what is incorrect. [What is incorrect is not used to] doubt what is correct. To rectify is to rectify actuality, and to rectify the name [ming] corresponding to it. In the White Horse Dialogue ( 白馬論 ; Báimǎ lùn ), one interlocutor (sometimes called the "sophist") defends the truth of the statement "White horses are not horses," while

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312-726: The Chicago school of architecture , which originated in Chicago, Illinois ; the Prague school of linguistics, named after a linguistic circle founded in Prague ; and the Tartu–Moscow Semiotic School , whose representatives lived in Tartu and Moscow . An example of a school of thought in Christianity (and Gnosticism ) is Neoplatonism , which has massively influenced Christian thought , from Augustinianism to Renaissance / Humanism to

338-523: The "Legalist doctrine of names" with the debates of the school of names. Such discussions are also prominent in the Han Feizi . Ming ('name') sometimes has the sense of "speech", so as to compare the statements of an aspiring officer with the reality of his actions—or of "reputation", again compared with real conduct ( xing 'form' or shi 'reality'). Two anecdotes in the Han Feizi provide examples—member of

364-619: The School of Names Ni Yue argued that a white horse is not a horse, and defeated all debaters, but was still tolled at the gate. In another, the chief minister of Yan pretended to see a white horse dash out the gate. All of his subordinates denied having seen anything, save one, who ran out after it and returned claiming to have seen it, and was thereby identified as a flatterer. Shen Buhai's personnel control, or rectification of names such as titles thereby worked for "strict performance control" correlating claims, performances and posts. It would become

390-410: The School of Names. As Gongsun Long enjoys the favor or rulers, his work also concerns social order. The Gongsun Long Zi reads: Heaven, earth, and their products are all things [物 wu]. When things possess the characteristics of things without exceeding them, there is actuality [shi]. When actuality actually fulfills its function as actuality, without wanting, there is order [位 wei]. To be out of order

416-454: The Zhuangzi, some likely served as a bridge between Mohism and the relativism of Zhuangzi Daoism. Hui Shi is noted for relativism , but also " embracing the ten thousand things ". But he may not have had much connection with Gongsun Long . They would have had backgrounds ranging from Mohist and Confucian to Daoistic. Gongsun Long is familiar with both Mohism and Confucianism, and is not always

442-580: The late, stringent Han Feizi ; it cannot be assumed that many were familiar with Shang Yang , if even Shen Buhai was. The earliest literary occurrence for xingming is in the Zhan Guo Ce , in reference to what would become known as the School of Names, amongst other more modern terms. The philosophy of the Logicians is often considered to be akin to those of the sophists or of the dialecticians . Joseph Needham notes that their works have been lost, except for

468-530: The martial culture of the Warring States period . His collected works comprise the Gongsun Longzi ( 公孫龍子 ) anthology. Comparatively few details are known about his life, and much of his work has been lost—only six of the fourteen essays he originally authored are still extant. In book 17 of the Zhuangzi , Gongsun speaks of himself: When young, I studied the way of the former kings. When I grew up, I understood

494-530: The obviously false claim that white horses are not part of the group of horses. However, the "sophist" in the dialogue defends the statement under the interpretation, "Not all horses are white horses". The latter statement is actually true, since—as the "sophist" explains—"horses" includes horses that are white, yellow, brown, etc., while "white horses" includes only white horses, and excludes the others. A.C. Graham proposed this interpretation and illustrated it with an analogy. The "Objector" assumes that "a white horse

520-574: The other interlocutor (sometimes called the "objector") disputes the truth of this statement. This has been interpreted in a number of ways. Possibly the simplest interpretation is to see it as based on a confusion of class and identity. The argument, by this interpretation, plays upon an ambiguity in Chinese that does not exist in English. The expression "X is not Y" (X非Y) can mean either The sentence "White horses are not horses" would normally be taken to assert

546-433: The partially preserved oeuvre of Gongsun Long , and the paradoxes of Chapter 33 of the Zhuangzi . Needham considers the disappearance of the greater part of Gongsun Long's work one of the worst losses in the ancient Chinese books, as what remains is said to reach the highest point of ancient Chinese philosophical writing. One of the few surviving lines from the school, "a one-foot stick, every day take away half of it, in

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572-419: The practice of kindness and duty. I united the same and different, separated hard from white, made so the not-so and admissible the inadmissible. I confounded the wits of the hundred schools and exhausted the eloquence of countless speakers. I took myself to have reached the ultimate. He is best known for a series of paradoxes in the tradition of Hui Shi , including "white horses are not horses", "when no thing

598-524: The present day. This philosophy -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Gongsun Long Gongsun Long ( c.  320  – 250 BC ), courtesy name Zibing , was a Chinese philosopher, writer, and member of the School of Names , also known as the Logicians, of ancient Chinese philosophy . Gongsun ran a school and received patronage from rulers, advocating peaceful means of resolving disputes amid

624-406: The records of decisions in criminal matters would come to be called called xingming . The Han-era scholars Sima Qian ( c.  145  – c.  86 BC ) and Liu Xiang (77–6 BC) attribute it to the doctrine of Shen Buhai (400 – c.  337 BC ). Shen actually used the older, more philosophically common equivalent, ming-shi, or name and reality, linking

650-562: The speaker to the realization a job". This was the doctrine favoured by Han Fei, with subtle differences. Favouring exactness, it combats the tendency to promise too much. The correct articulation of ming is considered crucial to the realization of projects. Smith, Kidder (2003). "Sima Tan and the Invention of Daoism, "Legalism," et cetera ". The Journal of Asian Studies . 62 (1): 129–156. doi : 10.2307/3096138 . JSTOR   3096138 . School of thought The phrase has become

676-484: The younger Mozi , Deng Xi, associated with litigation, is taken by Liu Xiang as the originator of the principle of xíngmíng , or ensuring that ministers' deeds ( xing ) harmonized with their words ( ming ). A primary concern of the bureaucratically oriented Shen Buhai and Han Fei , some of their administrators would have had a concern for relations in the bureaucracy, but with Gongsun Long as example, most were still likely more socially or philosophically oriented than

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