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Questions tagged [mereology]

46 questions
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Resisting a classic Buddhist Argument for Mereological Nihilism

I’ve been getting into mereology and this a classic Buddhist puzzle that he recommended. How can these premises be resisted? A. If wholes exist, then either wholes are identical with their parts or distinct from them. B. Wholes and their parts have…
Craigory
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Would an extremely unified being be able to issue more than one particular command?

Suppose that there is an actus purus, a being that is entirely active, impassible (nothing happens to this being), and which has no proper parts (its only part is itself entirely), not even abstract parts. It would be hard to deny all distinctions…
user40843
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Is reverse mereological essentialism compatible with a non-well-founded universe?

In David Oderberg's "reverse mereological essentialism" (Oderberg, D.S. Who’s afraid of reverse mereological essentialism?. Philos Stud (2023)), parts exist only in virtue of the whole—they are ontologically and essentially dependent on the whole to…
Ian
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How does one determine the boundary of an object?

Say we have what we would call an 'object' made of many components, can these 'components' be named objects themselves? In the case do we have an object or many 'objects'? Do we define an object to be 'isolated' things? Is it a choice how we express…
Confused
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Do wholes tell us what the parts are?

According to one reading of the atomic hypothesis it is parts that are fundamental and they tell us what wholes are, and in fact, what wholes are possible. For example: A tree is made up of roots, trunk and branches. A house is made up of floors,…
Mozibur Ullah
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What is the ontology of points?

This might be broad so let me narrow it. Concerning points and mereology, is it coherent to make points - extentionless entities - compose extended objects? If so, then the idea of "material point objects" is a coherent one and extension is no…
Jdog1998
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What is it called when the parts can only be understood in relation to the whole, and the whole only in relation to the parts?

I'm thinking about a circular situation where the parts can only be understood in relation to the whole, and the whole in relation to the parts. A hermeneutic circle might be one good example of this, but I have a feeling that it is a specialized…
ktm5124
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How can the relationship between a ray of light and the sun be expressed mereologically?

I'm struggling to understand how to frame the relationship between a ray of light and the sun in mereological terms. A ray of light is not a part of the sun in the strict sense, but it clearly depends on the sun and proceeds from it. How can this…
Ian
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Aristotle's problem of the continuum and mereological nihilism

Aristotle explains that "it is impossible for something continuous to be made of indivisibles, such as, for example, a line being composed of points, if we take for granted that the line is a continuum and the point is indivisible” (cf. Physics,…
Ian
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"Is" color extension, and vice versa?

In his mereology, Husserl defines moments as inseparable parts and cites examples such as the relationship between intensity and quality or the relationship between color and extension: I never see a color without extension, nor extension without…
Ian
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Can Mereology account for vagueness as a fundamental property of parts?

I'm new to the study of mereology, and my approach has primarily been through Husserl's Third Logical Investigation. I want to know if it's possible to construct a "universe" (I believe that's the term) where vagueness is a fundamental property of…
Ian
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More about the relations between properties of parts and their wholes?

Hi I'm trying to discover any metaphysical necessities that connect the properties of a whole and the properties of its parts. I know the properties of the whole can be different than the properties of its parts, and am aware that both the fallacy…
user50018
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Who are some key modern philosophers who have addressed the paradoxes of parts and wholes (mereology)?

I've read Graham Priest's book One (2014). Where he offers a what he calls "gluon" theory of parts and wholes. (These are metaphysical gluons which are not related to gluons from particle physics, only the term is borrowed.) Priest's theory is an…
Firecrystal Scribe
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To what extent is the notion of "common" of philosophical interest?

The 2021 theme for a french competitive philosophical exam is: "the common". I'm not sure the expression really makes sense in English. In French, it is the adjective "commun" ( English. common) used as a substantive. Bibliographies that have been…
Floridus Floridi
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Is composition more than the composite parts

Sorry for the somewhat dumb question! Please do see if you can make sense of the latter, and put it in formal or whatever terms. If a chariot is equal to its parts then the chariot is not its "being" equal to its parts. Else changing the parts of a…
user6917
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