Gongsun Long’s Approach to the “White-Horse-Not-Horse” Thesis and Its Engagement with Fregean and Kripkean Approaches to the Issue of Reference

I explore how Gongsun Long’s “double-reference” approach in his “White-Horse-Not-Horse” argumentation, as developed in the classical text “Bai-Ma-Lun” in the context of his Gong-Sun-Long-Zi can contribute to our understanding and treatment of the issue of how reference is possible in engaging with two representative approaches in contemporary philosophy of language: one heralded by Locke and Frege and another presented by Mill and Kripke. I first provide an interpretation of the text, explaining why its philosophical implications are philosophically interesting and significant. I then examine how Gongsun Long’s “double-reference” thought can engage with and complement the aforementioned two representative approaches to the issue of reference in a philosophically interesting way; I then examine how Gongsun Long’s “double-reference” thought can engage with and complement the aforementioned two representative approaches to the issue of reference in some significant connections.