3 24 14 School of Names disputation More of a loose categorization for philosophers interested in language logic and o Focused on argument language and paradox Very few of the SoN writings survive o Most of what we know about the School of names comes from later documents On the White Horse Gongsun Longzi 325 250 BCE o Longzi is a contemporary of Xunzi Gongsun Longzi probably played an important role in Xunzi s concern with paradox and language namely that misuse of language was evil There is some suggestion that Gongsun Longzi was a court entertainer in addition to a teacher This makes interpretation harder o He argued a guy has three ears The Main Claim A white horse is not a horse o This should seem obviously false o Arguments play on the ambiguity of the is a construction Is a could mean something like Is a member of a category OR it could mean is identical to Gongsun Longzi exploits this ambiguity o White horse is a horse 1 A white horse is part of the subclass horse 2 White horse is identical to horse o Leibniz s Law indiscernible Part of which states If two things are identical then they are o When I ask for a horse you could bring me a yellow horse But if I ask for a white horse a yellow horse in unacceptable Thus horse and white horse have different extensions and so are not identical Thus 2 above is false Normally a principle of charity would suggest we should interpret speakers as using 1 above o The Take Away We should be careful with language otherwise confusion ensues Longzi himself could be mocking other philosophers ord hold the view that white horses are not horses properly understood Yangism Yang Zhu 440 360 BCE Again all we know about Yangism comes from unsympathetic texts So The Most important Point He s the first Chinese philosopher to really focus on interpretation is difficult human nature 3 24 14 o Before him no one really talked about human nature After him As a very broad claim Yang Zhu advocates selfishness he s concerned with EVERYONE does the self o We need a very broad claim Yang Zhu advocates selfishness he s o 1 Psychological Egoism Humans are in fact motivated by self interest concerned with the self descriptive claim interest This is probably not right as a Yangist position o 2 Ethical Egoism normative claim People should act in their own self The Wrong Sort of Reasons Objection Ethical egoists make the same mistakes as racists giving more moral consideration on the base of irrelevant factors There may be responses to those objection but they might also give reason to not attribute EE to Yangists o 3 Privatism Humans should do only what is in the interest of themselves and their immediate family You could probably talk about this in slight connection to Xunzi Probably firs well with Mengzi s thought Slightly different however because Confucians think you can and possibly should overrule this preference Interpreting the Robber Zhi o Charitable interpretation We must pay attention to human nature needs wants desires and NOT ignore them