A white horse is not a horse

 

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

We discussed the story of "A white horse is not a horse" today (1/3/23) in class as part of Zhuangzi chapter 2 Section 6.  Please see below for more information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_a_white_horse_is_not_a_horse

The following Youtube video provides an explanation and a discussion on the topic:

https://youtu.be/nttOwSpIEMo?t=3896 

 A more academic discussion of the "White Horse" story is offered below in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy below:

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/school-names/#6.1

From the above article:

Christoph Harbsmeier, Professor Emeritus of Chinese, "suggests that Gongsun Long probably belonged to a class of entertainers at Chinese courts who performed various skills or tricks. His was to prove, over any and all objections, that a white horse is not a horse.... They could have been intended to be whimsical and amusing, even comical. The “White Horse” dialogue may be a record of the sort of arguments Gongsun Long would offer in his performances."

and 

"None of this means that interpreting “White Horse” is pointless. We can learn about the serious practice of disputation by studying what is in effect a spoof of disputation, just as an anthropologist can learn about a culture by studying its humor."

When Zhuangzi says "To use a horse to show that a horse is not a horse is not as good as using a non-horse to show that a horse is not a horse" (in chapter 2, section 6), he wants readers to see beyond the apparent cleverness of the "White Horse" story, and to see and understand things with more clarity.

By referencing the White Horse story, Zhuangzi possibly wants to make the following points:

• There are generally two sides to an arguments. (As stated in section 5 "Where there is acceptability there must be unacceptability; where there is unacceptability there must be acceptability.")
• People should recognise the difference between reality and words, as indicated in the whole of section 6:  https://philosophyphorphun.blogspot.com/2023/01/zhuangzi-chapter-2-section-6.html
• When people can see beyond words, categories, concepts etc. and see reality as it is, then people can appreciate the all things can be equal.