Standards and Reference in Early Chinese Philosophy of Language：Mohist Concepts, Practices, and Texts

Philosophy of Language in Early China characterizes early Chinese philosophy of language through a focus on standards (‘fa’). It argues that standards are understood by early Chinese philosophies to provide the groundwork for language, not only in the Mohist and so-called “Legalist” schools of Zhuangzi and Xunzi, but more widely in syncretic, Confucian, and Daoist texts from the Warring States and early Han. This book demonstrates that standards act as the Chinese counterpart of reference, classifying judgments, linguistic competence, class membership, and concepts found in contemporary analytic texts. In particular, Philosophy of Language in Early China provides a way to account for the reference of our words, and can account for error in a way that characterizes it in a very different way to the analytic tradition.

Providing new insights into ancient Chinese thought, this book will be of interest to those working in comparative philosophy, Chinese philosophy and East Asian studies.