"Logically Significant Words in the Gongsun Longzi" by Thierry LUCAS, UCL

This is chapter 9 of "The Gongsun Longzi and other neglected texts", edited by Rafaël Suter, Lisa Indraccolo and Wolfgang Behr.

ABSTRACT OF THE CHAPTER
The “School of Names” (Míngjiā 名家) has brought logical considerations into the field of Chinese philosophy. The present contribution aims to give a ‘measure’ of the ‘logicity’ of the texts, more particularly of the texts of the Gōngsūn Lóngzǐ 公孫龍子. The chapter looks at some logically significant words, such as yǒu 有, wú 無, kě 可, fēi 非, bù 不, gù 故, and suǒyǐ 所以, trying to make the analysis as objective as possible. To accomplish this, I pay special attention to the occurrences of these words: their numbers, their immediate contexts, and their non-controversial variations of meaning. I am confident that this type of inquiry brings out some features of the logical structure of the texts of the Gōngsūn Lóngzǐ and demonstrates their similarities and differences. It is hoped that this approach will help to confirm, invalidate, or at least qualify the hypothesis of their different origins.
KEYWORDS:
Gongsun Longzi, Philology, Stylometry, Logical particles, Determination of authorship