 This view seems implied by canon B1, which depicts two parties to a debate discussing how to “settle” (zhǐ 止) what kind (lèi 類) they are referring to by considering in turn whether the presence or absence of various features in one or more individual exemplars generalizes to the entire kind. The scenario depicted seems to presuppose that the particular exemplar (a horse, suppose) is inherently a member of a predetermined kind (horses). (This implicit assumption is reflected in the text’s referring to the exemplar as “this/these here” [cǐ 此] and to the kind it is understood to belong to as “this (kind)” [shì 是].) The debaters’ task is not to agree on features by which to establish or institute the kind, but to find features that reliably distinguish a collection of inherently similar things from other, non-similar things. They cannot simply stipulate what the features of the kind will be, just as they cannot simply stipulate that oxen are distinguished from horses by having horns. The similarity relation between the exemplar horse and other horses that constitutes being “of a kind” is intrinsic to them and does not depend on our deeming them similar. Hence it seems appropriate to characterize the Mohist stance as “realist,” specifically in the sense that the “sameness” relations that determine kinds are inherent in things and not a product of human attitudes or practices. 