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When A White Horse Is Not A Horse
When a white horse is not a horse is a paradox in Chinese philosophy attributed to Gongsun Long, a philosopher of the Warring States period. It appears in the form of a dialogue between two unnamed speakers who debate the proposition "a white horse is not a horse". The original text The dialogue constitutes a chapter of the eponymous ''Gongsun Longzi''. The purported author, also known as "Master Gongsun Long" (fl. 284-259 BCE), was counted among the School of Names in the Hundred Schools of Thought. Most of Gongsun's writings have been lost; the received ''Gongsun Longzi'' text contains only six of the supposed 14 original chapters. Parts of the text are dislocated; thus, some commentators and translators rearrange them for clarity. The dialogue is between two unnamed speakers: This dialogue continues with deliberations over colored and colorless horses and whether ''white'' and ''horse'' can be separated from ''white horse''. Other ''Gongsun Longzi'' chapters discuss "white h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Philosophy
Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the "Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural developments. Although much of Chinese philosophy begun in the Warring States period, elements of Chinese philosophy have existed for several thousand years. Some can be found in the ''I Ching'' (the ''Book of Changes''), an ancient compendium of divination, which dates back to at least 672 BCE. It was during the Warring States era that what Sima Tan termed the major philosophical schools of China—Confucianism, Legalism (Chinese philosophy), Legalism, and Taoism—arose, along with philosophies that later fell into obscurity, like Agriculturalism, Mohism, School of Naturalists, Chinese Naturalism, and the School of Names, Logicians. Even in modern society, Confucianism is still the creed of etiquette for Chinese society. Chinese philosophy as a ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horses In Culture
The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature, '' Eohippus'', into the large, single-toed animal of today. Humans began domesticating horses around 4000 BCE, and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BCE. Horses in the subspecies ''caballus'' are domesticated, although some domesticated populations live in the wild as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated. There is an extensive, specialized vocabulary used to describe equine-related concepts, covering everything from anatomy to life stages, size, colors, markings, breeds, locomotion, and behavior. Horses are adapted to run, allowing them to quickly escape predators, and po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dialogues
Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is chiefly associated in the West with the Socratic dialogue as developed by Plato, but antecedents are also found in other traditions including Indian literature. Etymology The term dialogue stems from the Greek διάλογος (''dialogos'', conversation); its roots are διά (''dia'': through) and λόγος (''logos'': speech, reason). The first extant author who uses the term is Plato, in whose works it is closely associated with the art of dialectic. Latin took over the word as ''dialogus''. As genre Antiquity and the Middle Ages Dialogue as a genre in the Middle East and Asia dates back to ancient works, such as Sumerian disputations preserved in copies from the late third millennium BC, Rigvedic dialogue hymns and the ''Mahabhara ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial support of Charles Scribner, as a printing press to serve the Princeton community in 1905. Its distinctive building was constructed in 1911 on William Street in Princeton. Its first book was a new 1912 edition of John Witherspoon's ''Lectures on Moral Philosophy.'' History Princeton University Press was founded in 1905 by a recent Princeton graduate, Whitney Darrow, with financial support from another Princetonian, Charles Scribner II. Darrow and Scribner purchased the equipment and assumed the operations of two already existing local publishers, that of the ''Princeton Alumni Weekly'' and the Princeton Press. The new press printed both local newspapers, university documents, ''The Daily Princetonian'', and later added book publishing to it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Use–mention Distinction
The use–mention distinction is a foundational concept of analytic philosophy, according to which it is necessary to make a distinction between a word (or phrase) and it.Devitt and Sterelny (1999) pp. 40–1 W.V. Quine (1940) p. 24 Many philosophical works have been "vitiated by a failure to distinguish use and mention". The distinction can sometimes be pedantic, especially in simple cases where it is obvious. The distinction between use and mention can be illustrated with the word ''cheese'': * ''Use'': Cheese is derived from milk. * ''Mention'': 'Cheese' is derived from (the Anglian variant of) the Old English word ''ċēse'' (). The first sentence is a statement about the substance called "cheese": it ''uses'' the word 'cheese' to refer to that substance. The second is a statement about the word 'cheese' as a signifier: it ''mentions'' the word without ''using'' it to refer to anything other than itself. Note the quotation marks. Grammar In written language, ''menti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhanguoce
The ''Zhan Guo Ce'', ( W-G: Chan-kuo T'se) also known in English as the ''Strategies of the Warring States'' or ''Annals of the Warring States'', is an ancient Chinese text that contains anecdotes of political manipulation and warfare during the Warring States period (5th to 3rd centuriesBC). It is an important text of the Warring States Period as it describes the strategies and political views of the School of Diplomacy and reveals the historical and social characteristics of the period. History The author of ''Zhan Guo Ce'' has not yet been verified: it is generally deemed, after Zhang Xincheng, that the book was not written by a single author at one time. It is thought to have been composed by Su Qin and his peers before being obtained by Liu Xiang. Unlike many of the pre-Qin classics, the authenticity of ''Zhan Guo Ce'', along with the ''Shijing'', ''Mozi'', ''Yulingzi'' and ''Gongsun Longzi'' had never been questioned since the Western Han period. The earliest to assert th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mozi
Mozi (; ; Latinized as Micius ; – ), original name Mo Di (), was a Chinese philosopher who founded the school of Mohism during the Hundred Schools of Thought period (the early portion of the Warring States period, –221 BCE). The ancient text ''Mozi'' contains material ascribed to him and his followers. Mozi taught that everyone is equal in the eyes of heaven. He believed that the decision of who is in power should be based on meritocracy, or those who are worthy of power should receive power. Mozi invoked heaven and called upon the Sage Kings to support his precedents. Born in what is now Tengzhou, Shandong Province, Mozi founded the school of Mohism, which argued strongly against both Confucianism and Daoism. Mozi's philosophy emphasized universal love, social order, the will of heaven, sharing, and honoring the worthy. During the Warring States period, Mohism was actively developed and practiced in many states, but fell out of favor when the legalist Qin dynasty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanfeizi
The ''Han Feizi'' or ''Hanfeizi'' (" ritings ofMaster Han Fei") is an ancient Chinese text named for its attribution to the political philosopher Han Fei. It comprises a selection of essays in the Legalist tradition on theories of state power, synthesizing the methodologies of his predecessors. Its 55 chapters, most of which date to the Warring States period mid-3rd century, are the only such text to survive fully intact. Among the most important philosophical classics in ancient China, it touches on administration, diplomacy, war and economics, and is also valuable for its abundance of anecdotes about pre-Qin China. Though differing considerably in style, the coherency of the essays lend themselves to the possibility that they were written by Han Fei himself, and are generally considered more philosophically engaging than the ''Book of Lord Shang''. Zhuge Liang is said to have attached great importance to the Han Feizi, as well as to Han Fei's predecessor Shen Buhai. Introdu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mencius
Mencius ( ); born Mèng Kē (); or Mèngzǐ (; 372–289 BC) was a Chinese Confucianism, Confucian Chinese philosophy, philosopher who has often been described as the "second Sage", that is, second to Confucius himself. He is part of Confucius' fourth generation of disciples. Mencius inherited Confucius' ideology and developed it further. Living during the Warring States period, he is said to have spent much of his life travelling around the states offering counsel to different rulers. Conversations with these rulers form the basis of the ''Mencius (book), Mencius'', which would later be canonised as a Confucian Chinese classics, classic. One primary principle of his work is that human nature is righteous and humane. The responses of citizens to the policies of rulers embodies this principle, and a state with righteous and humane policies will flourish by nature. The citizens, with freedom from good rule, will then allocate time to caring for their wives, brothers, elders, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mengzi (book)
The ''Mencius'' (; Old Chinese: *mˤraŋ-s tsəʔ) is a collection of conversations, anecdotes, and series of genuine and imagined interviews by the Confucian philosopher Mencius. The book is one of the Chinese Thirteen Classics, and explores Mencius' views on the topics of moral and political philosophy, often as a dialogue with the ideas presented by Confucianism. The interviews and conversations are depicted as being either between Mencius and the various rulers of the Warring States period, or with his students and other contemporaries. The book documents Mencius' travel across the states, and his philosophical conversations and debates with those he meets on his journey. A number of scholars suggest that the text was not written by Mencius himself, but rather by his disciples. The text is believed to have been written during the late 4th century BC. History Mencius' core ideas on education and human nature were largely shaped during the Warring States period (c. 770–221 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zhuangzi (book)
The ''Zhuangzi'' (Chinese: , historically romanized ''Chuang Tzŭ'') is an ancient Chinese text from the late Warring States period (476221) which contains stories and anecdotes that exemplify the carefree nature of the ideal Taoist sage. Named for its traditional author, "Master Zhuang" (Zhuangzi), the ''Zhuangzi'' is one of the two foundational texts of Taoism, along with the ''Tao Te Ching''. The ''Zhuangzi'' consists of a large collection of anecdotes, allegories, parables, and fables, which are often humorous or irreverent. Its main themes are of spontaneity in action and of freedom from the human world and its conventions. The fables and anecdotes in the text attempt to illustrate the falseness of human distinctions between good and bad, large and small, life and death, and human and nature. While other ancient Chinese philosophers focused on moral and personal duty, Zhuangzi promoted carefree wandering and becoming one with "the Way" (''Dào'' ) by following nature. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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