 The Mohist conception of valid inference may depart from many Western accounts in another way as well. Given their prevailing tendency to regard the action guiding significance of language as its principal function, the Mohists were likely compelled to think of the semantic property that is preserved in valid inference not simply in descriptive terms, but in normative ones as well. It is for this reason that scholars of early Chinese philosophy often prefer to translate the Chinese evaluative term ke as “admissibility”, as opposed to “truth”, since the Mohist conception of the correct use of a sentence was closely tied to presuppositions about proper social conduct. In this way, valid inference was construed as having complex justificatory import. For instance, in claiming that an action x is humane (ren) by its resemblance with the conduct of a sage, one is also providing justification for it as such, because one is asserting in the act of naming that it resembles the model for humane action, and resembling this model is the very condition that justifies calling it such. (Recall again that naming something is classifying it, such that for anything else that is like it one is obligated to use the same name.) Moreover, asserting that x is humane justifies the claim that it ought to be recognized as such, because the model which it resembles (in being a model) is the very justification for how the name ought to be used. Its resemblance carries with it the normative requirement that language users recognize it as such, for that is what would be expected of a language whose principal function is to guide behavior and encourage proper social conduct. Arguably, the English terms “admissible” and “inadmissible” come closer to capturing this notion than the more neutral terms “truth” and “falsehood”.