White horses and orphan colts
Thursday, June 21st, 2001 05:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robinturnerOn the recent discussion of radial categories (see replies to Oops, I did it again), what do the linguists/philosophers out there make of these statements attributed to Huizi (a leading member of the "School of Names"):
"A white horse is not a horse."
"An orphan colt has never had a mother."
Oops, that wasn't Huizi, it was Gong-sun Long (the other main person in that particular school). Huizi (also known as Hui Shi) was the guy who said things like "The heavens are as low as the earth; mountains are on the same level as marshes."
"A white horse is not a horse."
"An orphan colt has never had a mother."
Correction (28/6/01)
Oops, that wasn't Huizi, it was Gong-sun Long (the other main person in that particular school). Huizi (also known as Hui Shi) was the guy who said things like "The heavens are as low as the earth; mountains are on the same level as marshes."
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Re: Stupid thing made me cut my post in two!
Date: 2001-06-27 12:18 am (UTC)I used that exact phrase just a day ago in a philosophy exam. In an attempt to explain while nihilism is not a self-refuting philosophy (the whole "There are no truths" is a truth itself).Anyway.
Zen Koans are exactly what I thought of when I first considered the white horse/orphan colt phrases. They make perfect sense when I switch to my Taoist mode of thinking.
I don't know if they need to be "subordinate" catergories, just multifaceted.