“A White Horse is not A Horse” - the Sophistry of Gongsun Long
In the Warring-States Period (from 475 B.C. to 221 B.C.), the society of China was in flourishing pluralism. There were many famous schools which had splendid thoughts. The school of Gongsun Long (公孫龍, also respectfully called “Gongsun Longzi”[公孫龍子]. “Zi”[子] was a respectful appellation for a man.) was one of them. Gongsun Long lived in the Zhao（趙） State where was in modern-day Shanxi（山西） Province and Hebei（河北） Province, and he was accomplished in the sophistry of logical concepts, so his school was called “the School of Concepts”（名家）. His thoughts are embodied by his book “Gongsun Longzi”.
Gongsun Long had two famous logical propositions: “A white horse is not a horse”（白馬非馬）, and “The attributes of hardness and white color of a stone are separate”（離堅白）. The former was the most well-known one. The below texts are the dialogues of the argument round the former in the book “Gongsun Longzi”.
A visitor asked Gongsun Long, “A white horse is not a horse, is it?”
Gongsun Long said, “It isn’t.”
The visitor asked, “Why?”
Gongsun Long said, “’Horse’ is used to name the form, and ‘white’ is used to name the color. To name the color is not to name the form, so I say ‘a white horse is not a horse’.”
The visitor said, “If we have a white horse, we can’t say that we have no horse. So, isn’t it a horse? Since having a white horse is having a horse, why do you think the white one is not a horse?”
Gongsun Long said, “If we search a horse, the yellow one or the black one is also a choice. If we search a white horse, the yellow one or the black one can’t be a choice. If we call a white horse ‘a horse’, what we want to search is a horse. Since we want to search a horse, why not accept the yellow one or the black one? Since you think that having a yellow horse or a black horse is having ‘a horse’, why don’t you say you have a white horse? Accordingly, a white horse obviously is not a horse.”
The visitor said, “You think that a horse with a color is not a horse, but there is not a horse with a color in the world. Can you say there is not a horse in the world?”
Gongsun Long said, “Every horse has its color, so there are white horses. If horses have no colors, there are ‘horses’, how to find a white horse? So, a white one is not a horse. A white horse is a horse with white color. Is ‘a horse with white color’ absolutely equal to ‘a horse’? So, a white horse is not a horse.”
The visitor said, “As you said, a horse which is irrelative to white color is defined to a horse, and white color which is irrelative to a horse is defined to white color. You combine both of a horse and white color, and then named them ‘a white horse’, so it means that you use two irrelative concepts to define a common concept. Accordingly, the concept ‘a white horse’ is not tenable, so the viewpoint ‘a white horse is not a horse’ is also not tenable.”
Gongsun Long said, “Since having a white horse is having a horse, can we say that having a white horse is having a yellow horse?”
The visitor said, “No, we can’t.”
Gongsun Long said, “Since having a horse is different from having a yellow horse, we can see that a yellow horse is different from a horse. Since a yellow horse is different from a horse, so a yellow horse also is not a horse. You think that a yellow horse is not a horse, but a white horse is a horse. What you think is like putting a flying bird into a pool, or overturning inside and outside. How jumbled your ideas are!”
The visitor said, “If we have a white horse, we can’t say we have no horse. Why? The white color is ignored. If we don’t ignore the white color, of course having ‘a white horse’ is not equal to having ‘a horse’. We say having a white horse is having a horse, because it has a common attribute ‘horse’, not because it is a white horse. The word ‘having a horse’ does not mean that a ‘horse’ is equal to the common attribute ‘horse’.”
Gongsun Long said, “If white color is only a simple color, we can ignore it. But the white color of a white horse is relative to a horse, so the white color is a particular white color. The particular white color is not a simple color. If we don’t mind the color of a horse, a yellow horse or a black horse also is a choice. If we only want to get a white horse, we will abandon the yellow one or the black one because of their colors, and the white one is the only choice. Obviously, the result of ignoring the color of a horse is different from the result of minding the color of a horse, so, we can say, ‘a white horse is not a horse’.”
As a general knowledge, Gongsun Long of course couldn’t deny that a white horse belongs to horses. In fact, the thoughts of Gongsun Long mainly emphasize individuality distinguished from commonness. The philosophy of Gongsun Long was an embodiment of the society with flourishing pluralism. At that time, individuality was respected by people, so everyone could freely express their unusual ideas. A man in the Qi（杞） State every day was actually worried that heavens and stars would fall down someday. Though some of the unusual ideas often were not understood by others, there were still many persons who had such ideas and were brave to express their ideas. If all people are limited by the common way of thinking, it is really the sadness of a society.
Hui Shi（惠施）, also respectfully called “Huizi”（惠子）, was another famous scholar of the School of Concepts. He was the good friend of Zhuang Zhou (莊周, also respectfully called “Zhuangzi”[莊子]) who was a famous scholar of the School of Tao（道家）. They often argued. The famous argument between them is round “the happiness of fishes”. The following texts are the dialogues of the argument in the book “Zhuangzi”.
In a sunny day, Zhuangzi and Huizi walked on a bridge. There were many fishes in the river.
Zhuangzi said, “The fishes are swimming leisurely. It is the happiness of them.”
Huizi said, “You are not the fishes, how can you feel the happiness of the fishes?”
Zhuangzi said, “You are not me, how do you know that I can’t feel the happiness of the fishes?”
Huizi said, “I am not you, so I don’t know your mind. You are not the fishes, so, of course you also can’t feel the happiness of the fishes.”
Zhuangzi said with a smile, “Please review the first word of yours. You said, ‘how can you feel the happiness of the fishes?’ This means you have known that I can feel it and then ask me about the how. Now I tell you that, I feel it on the bridge.”
The arguments of sophists are really very interesting.
