Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction

ISBN-13: 9781472583666 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 248 str.

Giorgio Lando

Opis

Parthood and composition are everywhere. The leg of a table is part of the table, the word "Christmas" is part of the sentence "I wish you a merry Christmas," the 13th century is part of the Middle Ages. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg compose Benelux, the body of a deer is composed of a huge number of cells, the Middle Ages are composed of the Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, and Late Middle Ages. Is there really a general theory covering every instance of parthood and composition? Is classical mereology this general theory? Are its seemingly counter-intuitive features serious defects?Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction addresses the multifaceted and lively philosophical debates surrounding these questions, and defends the idea that classical mereology is indeed the general and exhaustive theory of parthood and composition in the domain of concrete entities.Several examples of parthood and composition, involving entities of different kinds, are scrutinised in depth. Incidentally, mereology is shown to interact in a surprising way with metaontology. Presenting a well-organized and comprehensive discussion of parthood and related notions, Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction contributes to a better understanding of a subject central to contemporary metaphysics.

Spis treści

Introduction Part I: The Methodology of Mereological Monism 1. Natural Language, Literal Parthood, and Philosophical Mereology 2. Mereological Monism: A Desirable Philosophical Thesis 3. Is Mereology Formal? 4. Transitivity and Other Features Part II: Extensionalism 5. Hyperextensionality and Nominalism about Structure 6. What Extensionalism Says 7. Extensionalism and Concrete Entities 8. Extensionalism and Abstract Entities 9. The Alternatives to Extensionalism Part III: Unrestricted Composition 10. Mereological Fusion and Plural Logic 11. The Definition of Fusion 12. Allegedly Counterintuitive Entities 13. The Argument from Vagueness 14. Unrestricted Composition and Metaontology Appendix: Mereological Monism, Without Composition as Identity References Index