 While the kinds of semantic rules underlying the interpretation of our expressions in language might be heterogeneous, with no guarantee that assumptions about compositionality will hold, the Mohists nevertheless did not waver in their belief that the objects of experience exhibit real similarities and differences, and that the identification of these similarities and differences is what allows us to “distinguish the noble and the base” (ming gui jian, to use Xunzi’s phrase). Indeed, the central purpose of language is to guide behavior by clarifying how one should act, and this is done by distinguishing the noble and the base through the subtle analysis of similarities and differences. We take the actions of exemplary individuals as models, identify the criteria that distinguish them or their actions, and act accordingly in an analogous way. Sometimes these semantic analyses would reveal odd consequences; as noted above, “robbers are people, but killing robbers is not killing people”. But the Mohists were not in general averse to embracing such oddities, given their general conviction that the philosophical explication of meaning should follow normal conventions of use. In any case, they never abandoned the belief that an exhaustive analysis of semantic possibilities should render transparent real similarities and differences in the world in a way that provides a consistent, invariable guide for action. If the analysis of language can provide this, then confusion about how to act should be dispelled from society and people should be able to live together in harmony.