Abstract
The paper offers a re-evaluation of the notion of Self from the comparative perspective of early Chinese and ancient Greek philosophy. It traces a major discontinuity in the development of the two traditions, namely the philosophical turn towards the speech, its limits and possibilities, and its role in forming one's experience and actions.
Names and speech are thematised in many strands of early Chinese thought, mainly in the context of the art of government and laws. But the recently excavated Warring States period cosmological texts bring in yet another dimension of naming: names are uncovered as more directly involved in structuring the reality, otherwise understood as one, continuous and always changing.
As a consequence, new awareness of the Self as a potential 'source of names' emerges. This notion of Self, however, has to be understood in radically different terms from the one arising from ancient Greek tradition.