Gongsun Long: le lieu philosophique du cheval blanc

Abstract

Philosophy, as we know it in history, has given birth to commonplaces of problems and arguments the understanding of which does not require speaking any language more than other. So, the present paper is intended to show such a locus communis philosophiae in the argument of Gongsun Long, according to which « white horse is not horse », sometimes quoted in a deceitful translation as « white horse is no horse ». Gongsun Long was called by Chinese scholars a « disputer », and excluded from the field of philosophy by European scholars, who call him a « sophist ». However, his argument may be understood as aiming at a distinction analogous to that between essential and accidental predication according to Aristotle, as well as aiming at what Husserl called « categorial intuition ». But the proper Chinese feature of such a thought is that it remains indifferent to any choice to be done between either being prior to consciousness, following Aristotle or consciousness prior to being, following Husserl.