School of Names (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry)

This is Chris Fraser's School of Names entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, first published 25 October 2005 and substantively revised 3 September 2024, maintained by the Metaphysics Research Lab at Stanford University. As a peer-reviewed, continuously revised scholarly reference by a specialist in early Chinese philosophy it covers the School of Names, the loose grouping of thinkers including Hui Shi and Gongsun Long associated with paradoxes about names, objects and language. Its strength is that Stanford Encyclopedia entries are written and periodically revised by recognized specialists under editorial oversight. Its limit is that the underlying textual record for this school is itself fragmentary, a difficulty the entry addresses directly, so a claim resting on a specific paradox's original wording needs to be checked against that fragmentary primary record.