Logical Thinking in the Gongsun Longzi

In the literature of Chinese philosophical logic, there are at least four representative interpretations and analyses of the logical and philosophical thinking in the Gongsun Longzi. These four different interpretations are: Hu Shih’s 胡適 “description-theoretical interpretation,” Fung Yu-lan’s 馮友蘭 “Platonic realistic interpretation,” Janusz Chmielewski’s “set-theoretical interpretation,” and Chad Hansen’s “nominalistic interpretation” which is based on his mass-noun hypothesis. In this chapter, I will demonstrate that all these interpretations are not in accordance with the text and also not coherent and comprehensive in interpretation. Moreover, I will use the first-order predicate logic to analyse the logical structure of the philosophical thinking in the text, especially in the Discourse on White-Horse, and explain its philosophical implication.