Composition, identity, and emergence

Journal Title: Logic and Logical Philosophy - Year 2016, Vol 25, Issue 3

Abstract

Composition as Identity (CAI) is the thesis that a whole is, strictly and literally, identical to its parts, considered collectively. McDaniel [2008] argues against CAI in that it prohibits emergent properties. Recently Sider [2014] exploited the resources of plural logic and extensional mereology to undermine McDaniel’s argument. He shows that CAI identifies extensionally equivalent pluralities – he calls it the Collapse Principle (CP) – and then shows how this identification rescues CAI from the emergentist argument. In this paper I first give a new generalized version of both the arguments. It is more general in that it does not presuppose an atomistic mereology. I then go on to argue that the consequences of CP are rather radical. It entails mereological nihilism, the view that there are only mereological atoms. I finally show that, given a mild assumption about property instantiation, namely that there are no un-instantiated properties, this argument entails that CAI and emergent properties are incompatible after all.

Authors and Affiliations

Claudio Calosi

Keywords

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  • EP ID EP202188
  • DOI 10.12775/LLP.2016.010
  • Views 62
  • Downloads 0

How To Cite

Claudio Calosi (2016). Composition, identity, and emergence. Logic and Logical Philosophy, 25(3), 429-443. https://europub.co.uk/articles/-A-202188