Description
Book SynopsisThe present study on ancient Chinese philosophy invites us to meet a challenging task in philosophical understanding. The so-called School of Names (mingjia åå) is a label for a diverse group of thinkers in the Warring States period (479â221 B.C.) that has sometimes been accused of dabbling in flippant linguistic and conceptual puzzles, paradoxes, or sophistries. Bernard Solomon analyzes the works of its two main representatives, namely Huizi æƒå (Master Hui, or Hui Shi æƒæ, 380â305 B.C.?) and Gongsun Long ååé (b. 380 B.C.?).
The Chapter One deals with the ten paradoxes of Huizi as recorded in the Zhuangzi 莊å. Chapters Two to Six are devoted to five texts attributed to Gongsun Long that have been called cryptic or even a mixture of banality and nonsense. Among them is also found the White-Horse Dialogue with its famous dictum A white horse is not a horse. The aim of Solomonâs investigation is the discovery of the rules of language games in the School of Names and of the key to solve their linguistic and conceptual puzzles and paradoxes. His analysis shows in all the texts he interprets an evidence of an interest in language qua language (p. 12), which is unique for Chinese thought in the classical era.
Bernard S. Solomon holds a Ph.D. in Far Eastern Languages of Harvard University (1952) and was a long-time Professor of Chinese in the Department of Classical and Oriental Languages at Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY).
