"白马非马"与"窜改词义"谬误--从与冯友兰不同的视角批判公孙龙

不少今哲颇褒公孙龙的"白马非马"(P)论题,而冯友兰大师则较为跟随古哲,颇贬P.本文赞同后者.公孙龙说"白马非马"(P),或"懒(不捕鼠的)猫非猫"(Q),人们都把P、R的"非"解作"不是"而不能解作"异于"、"不等于",因语言乃"约定俗成",所以P、Q皆假.至于"鲸鱼非鱼"(R),在"鱼"的词义未被"理性修订"之前,R也是假句.虽然公孙龙从论据正确地建立"白马异于马",但当他再从"异于"推论"白马非马"时,推论明显不正确,犯"窜改词义"谬误.

A White Horse is Not a Horse and the Distorting Word Meaning Fallacy--A critical discussion on Gong Sun-long from the perspective different from Feng You-lan

Quite a few contemporary philosophers approve Gong Sun-long's "A white horse is not a horse " claim(P),yet Master Feng You-lan rather follow the ancient philosophers-disapproving(P).This paper approves the latter.Gong Sun-long holds the view that people explain "not" in "a white horse is not a horse"(P) or " lazy cat(the cat which does not catch the mouse) is not a cat"(Q) as " is not" rather than "different" or " not equal".Since language is "conventional",P and Q are all false.As for " a whale is not a fish"(R),before the rational revision of the meaning of "fish",R is also false.Though Gong Sun-long correctly justified the claim "a white horse is different from a horse "(S),but when he infers P based on the meaning of "different",the inference is obviously wrong.It commits the fallacy of "distorting word meaning".