Posted 2017/7/17
The School of Names, also known as mingjia, bianzhe, chashi and xingmingjia in Chinese, is the traditional Chinese label for a diverse group of Warring States thinkers who shared an interest in language, disputation, and metaphysics. The representative figures include Hui Shi and Gongsun Long.
The School of Names is divided into two sub-schools. One is the School of Induction headed by Hui Shi, advocating that all things, despite their differences in nature, could be integrated as a whole based on the common ground regardless of their minor differences. The other is the School of Deduction headed by Gongsun Long, advocating that the concepts of things could be independent of the things they represent. The academic activities carried out by the School of Names remarkably accelerated the development of logic in China.
