Author Quotation

A quote that stood out most to me was from the Chinese philosopher Gongsun Long discussed in Gleick’s “Persistence of The Word”. The quote poses a question: “Can it be that a white horse is not a horse?” Long elaborates on his question, “Horse is that by means of which one names the shape. “White is that by means of which one names the colour. What names the colour is not what names the shape. Hence, I say that a white horse is not a horse.” Gleick used this argument in his paper about how written language has stolen the connection and intimacy between us and the world. The fact that we are made to think and sort our world into arbitrary categories has interesting connotations and possible consequences. I think this quote stood out to me because I heard the white horse paradox when I was younger and as a kid, I thought it was hilarious. I think Gleick’s contextualization of this classic question is super interesting I would have never thought to question the system of written language.