Author: Shieva Kleinschmidt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199593825
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
A team of leading philosophers presents original work on theories of parthood and of location. Topics covered include how we ought to axiomatise our mereology, whether we can reduce mereological relations to identity or to locative relations, whether Mereological Essentialism is true, different ways in which entities persist through space, time, spacetime, and even hypertime, conflicting intuitions we have about space, and what mereology and propositions can tell us about one another. The breadth and accessibility of the papers make this volume an excellent introduction for those not yet working on these topics. Further, the papers contain important contributions to these central areas of metaphysics, and thus are essential reading for anyone working in the field.
Mereology and Location
Author: Shieva Kleinschmidt
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199593825
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
A team of leading philosophers presents original work on theories of parthood and of location. Topics covered include how we ought to axiomatise our mereology, whether we can reduce mereological relations to identity or to locative relations, whether Mereological Essentialism is true, different ways in which entities persist through space, time, spacetime, and even hypertime, conflicting intuitions we have about space, and what mereology and propositions can tell us about one another. The breadth and accessibility of the papers make this volume an excellent introduction for those not yet working on these topics. Further, the papers contain important contributions to these central areas of metaphysics, and thus are essential reading for anyone working in the field.
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199593825
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 290
Book Description
A team of leading philosophers presents original work on theories of parthood and of location. Topics covered include how we ought to axiomatise our mereology, whether we can reduce mereological relations to identity or to locative relations, whether Mereological Essentialism is true, different ways in which entities persist through space, time, spacetime, and even hypertime, conflicting intuitions we have about space, and what mereology and propositions can tell us about one another. The breadth and accessibility of the papers make this volume an excellent introduction for those not yet working on these topics. Further, the papers contain important contributions to these central areas of metaphysics, and thus are essential reading for anyone working in the field.
Mereology
Author: A. J. Cotnoir
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198749007
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 422
Book Description
Is a whole something more than the sum of its parts? Are there things composed of the same parts? If you divide an object into parts, and divide those parts into smaller parts, will this process ever come to an end? Can something lose parts or gain new ones without ceasing to be the thing it is? Does any multitude of things (including disparate things such as you, this book, and the tail of a cat) compose a whole of some sort? Questions such as these have occupied us for at least as long as philosophy has existed. They define the field that has come to be known as mereology-the study of all relations of part to whole and of part to part within a whole-and have deep and far-reaching ramifications in metaphysics as well as in logic, the foundations of mathematics, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of science, and beyond. In Mereology, A. J. Cotnoir and Achille C. Varzi have compiled decades of advanced research into a comprehensive, up-to-date, and formally rigorous picture. The early chapters cover the more classical aspects of mereology; the rest of the book deals with variants and extensions. Whether you are an established professional philosopher, an interested student, or a newcomer, inside you will find all the tools you need to join this ever-evolving field of inquiry and theorize about all things mereological.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198749007
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 422
Book Description
Is a whole something more than the sum of its parts? Are there things composed of the same parts? If you divide an object into parts, and divide those parts into smaller parts, will this process ever come to an end? Can something lose parts or gain new ones without ceasing to be the thing it is? Does any multitude of things (including disparate things such as you, this book, and the tail of a cat) compose a whole of some sort? Questions such as these have occupied us for at least as long as philosophy has existed. They define the field that has come to be known as mereology-the study of all relations of part to whole and of part to part within a whole-and have deep and far-reaching ramifications in metaphysics as well as in logic, the foundations of mathematics, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of science, and beyond. In Mereology, A. J. Cotnoir and Achille C. Varzi have compiled decades of advanced research into a comprehensive, up-to-date, and formally rigorous picture. The early chapters cover the more classical aspects of mereology; the rest of the book deals with variants and extensions. Whether you are an established professional philosopher, an interested student, or a newcomer, inside you will find all the tools you need to join this ever-evolving field of inquiry and theorize about all things mereological.
Parts and Places
Author: Roberto Casati
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262032667
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Thinking about space is thinking about spatial things. The table is on the carpet; hence the carpet is under the table. The vase is in the box; hence the box is not in the vase. But what does it mean for an object to be somewhere? How are objects tied to the space they occupy? In this book Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi address some of the fundamental issues in the philosophy of spatial representation. Their starting point is an analysis of the interplay betwen mereology (the study of part/whole relations), topology (the study of spatial continuity and comapctness) and the theory of spatial location proper. This leads to a unified framework for spatial representation understood quite broadly as a theory of the representation of spatial entities. The framework is then tested against some classical metaphysical questions such as: Are parts essential to their whole? Is spatial co-location a sufficient criterion of identity? What (if anything) distinguishes material objects from events and other spatial entities? The concluding chapters deal with applications to topics as diverse as the logical analysis of movement and the semantics of maps.
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262032667
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 258
Book Description
Thinking about space is thinking about spatial things. The table is on the carpet; hence the carpet is under the table. The vase is in the box; hence the box is not in the vase. But what does it mean for an object to be somewhere? How are objects tied to the space they occupy? In this book Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi address some of the fundamental issues in the philosophy of spatial representation. Their starting point is an analysis of the interplay betwen mereology (the study of part/whole relations), topology (the study of spatial continuity and comapctness) and the theory of spatial location proper. This leads to a unified framework for spatial representation understood quite broadly as a theory of the representation of spatial entities. The framework is then tested against some classical metaphysical questions such as: Are parts essential to their whole? Is spatial co-location a sufficient criterion of identity? What (if anything) distinguishes material objects from events and other spatial entities? The concluding chapters deal with applications to topics as diverse as the logical analysis of movement and the semantics of maps.
Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction
Author: Giorgio Lando
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472583671
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
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.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472583671
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
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.
Composition as Identity
Author: A. J. Cotnoir
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199669619
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
Composition is the relation between a whole and its parts--the parts are said to compose the whole; the whole is composed of the parts. But is a whole anything distinct from its parts taken collectively? It is often said that 'a whole is nothing over and above its parts'; but what might we mean by that? Could it be that a whole just is its parts? This collection of essays is the first of its kind to focus on the relationship between composition and identity. Twelve original articles--written by internationally renowned scholars and rising stars in the field--argue for and against the controversial doctrine that composition is identity. An editor's introduction sets out the formal and philosophical groundwork to bring readers to the forefront of the debate.
Publisher:
ISBN: 0199669619
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 271
Book Description
Composition is the relation between a whole and its parts--the parts are said to compose the whole; the whole is composed of the parts. But is a whole anything distinct from its parts taken collectively? It is often said that 'a whole is nothing over and above its parts'; but what might we mean by that? Could it be that a whole just is its parts? This collection of essays is the first of its kind to focus on the relationship between composition and identity. Twelve original articles--written by internationally renowned scholars and rising stars in the field--argue for and against the controversial doctrine that composition is identity. An editor's introduction sets out the formal and philosophical groundwork to bring readers to the forefront of the debate.
Parts
Author: Peter Simons
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780199241460
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
The relationship of part to whole is one of the most fundamental there is, yet until now there has been no full-length study of this concept. This book shows that mereology, the formal theory of part and whole, is essential to ontology. Peter Simons surveys and criticizes previous theories, especially the standard extensional view, and proposes a more adequate account which encompasses both temporal and modal considerations in detail. This has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of such classical philosophical concepts as identity, individual, class, substance and accident, matter, form, essence, dependence, and integral whole. It also enables the author to offer new solutions to long-standing problems surrounding these concepts, such as the Ship of Theseus Problem and the issue of mereological essentialism. The author shows by his use of formal techniques that classical philosophical problems are amenable to rigorous treatment, and the book represents a synthesis of issues and methods from the analytical tradition and from the older continental realist tradition of Brentano and the early Husserl.
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 9780199241460
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 390
Book Description
The relationship of part to whole is one of the most fundamental there is, yet until now there has been no full-length study of this concept. This book shows that mereology, the formal theory of part and whole, is essential to ontology. Peter Simons surveys and criticizes previous theories, especially the standard extensional view, and proposes a more adequate account which encompasses both temporal and modal considerations in detail. This has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of such classical philosophical concepts as identity, individual, class, substance and accident, matter, form, essence, dependence, and integral whole. It also enables the author to offer new solutions to long-standing problems surrounding these concepts, such as the Ship of Theseus Problem and the issue of mereological essentialism. The author shows by his use of formal techniques that classical philosophical problems are amenable to rigorous treatment, and the book represents a synthesis of issues and methods from the analytical tradition and from the older continental realist tradition of Brentano and the early Husserl.
Approximate Reasoning by Parts
Author: Lech Polkowski
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364222279X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
The monograph offers a view on Rough Mereology, a tool for reasoning under uncertainty, which goes back to Mereology, formulated in terms of parts by Lesniewski, and borrows from Fuzzy Set Theory and Rough Set Theory ideas of the containment to a degree. The result is a theory based on the notion of a part to a degree. One can invoke here a formula Rough: Rough Mereology : Mereology = Fuzzy Set Theory : Set Theory. As with Mereology, Rough Mereology finds important applications in problems of Spatial Reasoning, illustrated in this monograph with examples from Behavioral Robotics. Due to its involvement with concepts, Rough Mereology offers new approaches to Granular Computing, Classifier and Decision Synthesis, Logics for Information Systems, and are--formulation of well--known ideas of Neural Networks and Many Agent Systems. All these approaches are discussed in this monograph. To make the exposition self--contained, underlying notions of Set Theory, Topology, and Deductive and Reductive Reasoning with emphasis on Rough and Fuzzy Set Theories along with a thorough exposition of Mereology both in Lesniewski and Whitehead--Leonard--Goodman--Clarke versions are discussed at length. It is hoped that the monograph offers researchers in various areas of Artificial Intelligence a new tool to deal with analysis of relations among concepts.
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 364222279X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 356
Book Description
The monograph offers a view on Rough Mereology, a tool for reasoning under uncertainty, which goes back to Mereology, formulated in terms of parts by Lesniewski, and borrows from Fuzzy Set Theory and Rough Set Theory ideas of the containment to a degree. The result is a theory based on the notion of a part to a degree. One can invoke here a formula Rough: Rough Mereology : Mereology = Fuzzy Set Theory : Set Theory. As with Mereology, Rough Mereology finds important applications in problems of Spatial Reasoning, illustrated in this monograph with examples from Behavioral Robotics. Due to its involvement with concepts, Rough Mereology offers new approaches to Granular Computing, Classifier and Decision Synthesis, Logics for Information Systems, and are--formulation of well--known ideas of Neural Networks and Many Agent Systems. All these approaches are discussed in this monograph. To make the exposition self--contained, underlying notions of Set Theory, Topology, and Deductive and Reductive Reasoning with emphasis on Rough and Fuzzy Set Theories along with a thorough exposition of Mereology both in Lesniewski and Whitehead--Leonard--Goodman--Clarke versions are discussed at length. It is hoped that the monograph offers researchers in various areas of Artificial Intelligence a new tool to deal with analysis of relations among concepts.
Mereology and the Sciences
Author: Claudio Calosi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319053566
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 389
Book Description
This volume is the first systematic and thorough attempt to investigate the relation and the possible applications of mereology to contemporary science. It gathers contributions from leading scholars in the field and covers a wide range of scientific theories and practices such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Throughout the volume, a variety of foundational issues are investigated both from the formal and the empirical point of view. The first section looks at the topic as it applies to physics. The section addresses questions of persistence and composition within quantum and relativistic physics and concludes by scrutinizing the possibility to capture continuity of motion as described by our best physical theories within gunky space times. The second part tackles mathematics and shows how to provide a foundation for point-free geometry of space switching to fuzzy-logic. The relation between mereological sums and set-theoretic suprema is investigated and issues about different mereological perspectives such as classical and natural Mereology are thoroughly discussed. The third section in the volume looks at natural science. Several questions from biology, medicine and chemistry are investigated. From the perspective of biology, there is an attempt to provide axioms for inferring statements about part hood between two biological entities from statements about their spatial relation. From the perspective of chemistry, it is argued that classical mereological frameworks are not adequate to capture the practices of chemistry in that they consider neither temporal nor modal parameters. The final part introduces computer science and engineering. A new formal mereological framework in which an indeterminate relation of part hood is taken as a primitive notion is constructed and then applied to a wide variety of disciplines from robotics to knowledge engineering. A formal framework for discrete mereotopology and its applications is developed and finally, the importance of mereology for the relatively new science of domain engineering is also discussed.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319053566
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 389
Book Description
This volume is the first systematic and thorough attempt to investigate the relation and the possible applications of mereology to contemporary science. It gathers contributions from leading scholars in the field and covers a wide range of scientific theories and practices such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Throughout the volume, a variety of foundational issues are investigated both from the formal and the empirical point of view. The first section looks at the topic as it applies to physics. The section addresses questions of persistence and composition within quantum and relativistic physics and concludes by scrutinizing the possibility to capture continuity of motion as described by our best physical theories within gunky space times. The second part tackles mathematics and shows how to provide a foundation for point-free geometry of space switching to fuzzy-logic. The relation between mereological sums and set-theoretic suprema is investigated and issues about different mereological perspectives such as classical and natural Mereology are thoroughly discussed. The third section in the volume looks at natural science. Several questions from biology, medicine and chemistry are investigated. From the perspective of biology, there is an attempt to provide axioms for inferring statements about part hood between two biological entities from statements about their spatial relation. From the perspective of chemistry, it is argued that classical mereological frameworks are not adequate to capture the practices of chemistry in that they consider neither temporal nor modal parameters. The final part introduces computer science and engineering. A new formal mereological framework in which an indeterminate relation of part hood is taken as a primitive notion is constructed and then applied to a wide variety of disciplines from robotics to knowledge engineering. A formal framework for discrete mereotopology and its applications is developed and finally, the importance of mereology for the relatively new science of domain engineering is also discussed.
The Metaphysics of Hyperspace
Author: Hud Hudson
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0199282579
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Hud Hudson offers a fascinating examination of philosophical reasons to believe in hyperspace. He begins with some stage-setting discussions, offering his analysis of the term 'material object', noting his adherence to substantivalism, confessing his sympathies regarding principles of composition and decomposition, identifying his views on material simples, material gunk, and the persistence of material objects, and preparing the reader for later discussions with introductoryremarks on eternalism, modality and recombination, vagueness, bruteness, and the epistemic role of intuitions. The subsequent chapters are loosely organized around the theme of hyperspace. Hudson explores nontheistic reasons to believe in hyperspace in chapter 1 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection onincongruent counterparts and fine-tuning arguments), theistic reasons in chapter 7 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection on theistic puzzles known as the problem of the best and the problem of evil), and some distinctively Christian reasons in chapter 8 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection on traditional Christian themes such as heaven and hell, the Garden of Eden, angels and demons, and new testament miracles). In the intervening chapters, Hudson inquires into a variety of puzzles in themetaphysics of material objects that are either generated by the hypothesis of hyperspace, focusing on the topics of mirror determinism and mirror incompatibilism, or else informed by the hypothesis of hyperspace, with discussions of receptacles, boundaries, contact, occupation, and superluminal motion.Anyone engaged with contemporary metaphysics will find much to stimulate them here.
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN: 0199282579
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Book Description
Hud Hudson offers a fascinating examination of philosophical reasons to believe in hyperspace. He begins with some stage-setting discussions, offering his analysis of the term 'material object', noting his adherence to substantivalism, confessing his sympathies regarding principles of composition and decomposition, identifying his views on material simples, material gunk, and the persistence of material objects, and preparing the reader for later discussions with introductoryremarks on eternalism, modality and recombination, vagueness, bruteness, and the epistemic role of intuitions. The subsequent chapters are loosely organized around the theme of hyperspace. Hudson explores nontheistic reasons to believe in hyperspace in chapter 1 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection onincongruent counterparts and fine-tuning arguments), theistic reasons in chapter 7 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection on theistic puzzles known as the problem of the best and the problem of evil), and some distinctively Christian reasons in chapter 8 (e.g. reasons arising from reflection on traditional Christian themes such as heaven and hell, the Garden of Eden, angels and demons, and new testament miracles). In the intervening chapters, Hudson inquires into a variety of puzzles in themetaphysics of material objects that are either generated by the hypothesis of hyperspace, focusing on the topics of mirror determinism and mirror incompatibilism, or else informed by the hypothesis of hyperspace, with discussions of receptacles, boundaries, contact, occupation, and superluminal motion.Anyone engaged with contemporary metaphysics will find much to stimulate them here.
Metaphysical Foundations
Author: Richard Milton Martin
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 402
Book Description
The philosophical papers collected together in this volume cover a variety of topics centering around the three items of the title. Mereology, the theory of part-whole, appears and reappears throughout as a kind of basso ostinato for much that is said. For its full effect, however, mereology must be combined with various items treated in metalogic or logical semiotics, the modern trivium of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. When pressed for their total philosophic richness, all of these subjects flow over into topics of perennial interest in metaphysics, including even metaphysical theology. It is thought that the treatment here brings these various subjects together in a new light and in an exact way. As a result, they are seen to gain in richness, scope, and depth, and a basis provided for the study of how intimately they "interanimate" each other. Each paper here is a critical and/or constructive adventure of ideas, not necessarily agreeing in all details with every other. Even though they are concerned with a considerable variety of philosophical topics, there is nonetheless a common methodology throughout, namely, the logica utens of first order quantification theory - or its algebraic surrogate - together with the first-order metalogic based on it, which are thought to provide the bedrock of sound philosophical method. This view has been spelled out in considerable detail in the author's previous publications and is further develop here in important ways. "Richard M. Martin's work display a wealth of ideas, proposals, and formal analyses, always on top of the ideal of precision and rigour which were so important to him" Lingua e Stile, 1988 Of interest to: Philosophers, linguists, logicians
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 402
Book Description
The philosophical papers collected together in this volume cover a variety of topics centering around the three items of the title. Mereology, the theory of part-whole, appears and reappears throughout as a kind of basso ostinato for much that is said. For its full effect, however, mereology must be combined with various items treated in metalogic or logical semiotics, the modern trivium of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. When pressed for their total philosophic richness, all of these subjects flow over into topics of perennial interest in metaphysics, including even metaphysical theology. It is thought that the treatment here brings these various subjects together in a new light and in an exact way. As a result, they are seen to gain in richness, scope, and depth, and a basis provided for the study of how intimately they "interanimate" each other. Each paper here is a critical and/or constructive adventure of ideas, not necessarily agreeing in all details with every other. Even though they are concerned with a considerable variety of philosophical topics, there is nonetheless a common methodology throughout, namely, the logica utens of first order quantification theory - or its algebraic surrogate - together with the first-order metalogic based on it, which are thought to provide the bedrock of sound philosophical method. This view has been spelled out in considerable detail in the author's previous publications and is further develop here in important ways. "Richard M. Martin's work display a wealth of ideas, proposals, and formal analyses, always on top of the ideal of precision and rigour which were so important to him" Lingua e Stile, 1988 Of interest to: Philosophers, linguists, logicians