The mereology of structural universals
Journal Title: Logic and Logical Philosophy - Year 2016, Vol 25, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper explores the mereology of structural universals, using the structural richness of a non-classical mereology without unique fusions. The paper focuses on a problem posed by David Lewis, who using the example of methane, and assuming classical mereology, argues against any purely mereological theory of structural universals. The problem is that being a methane molecule would have to contain being a hydrogen atom four times over, but mereology does not have the concept of the same part occurring several times. This paper takes up the challenge by providing mereological analysis of three operations sufficient for a theory of structural universals: (1) Reflexive binding, i.e. identifying two of the places of a universal; (2) Existential binding, i.e. the language-independent correlate of an existential quantification; and (3) Conjunction.
Authors and Affiliations
Peter Forrest
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP202126
- DOI 10.12775/LLP.2015.012
- Views 44
- Downloads 0
Aristotle's Correspondence Theory of Truth and What Does Not Exist
While nowhere does he use the term to refer to his own theory, Aristotle is often thought to exemplify an early correspondence theory of truth. In the paper, I examine the textual evidence used to support the idea that A...
Informal Fallacies as Abductive Inferences
All who teach logic are familiar with informal fallacies such as ad ignorantium (appeal to ignorance) and ad populum (appeal to popularity). While it is easy to give clear examples of poor reasoning of this sort, instruc...
On some extensions of the class of MV-algebras
In the present paper we will ask for the lattice L(MVEx) of subvarieties of the variety defined by the set Ex(MV) of all externally compatible identities valid in the variety MV of all MV-algebras. In particular, we will...
Category Free Category Theory and Its Philosophical Implications
There exists a dispute in philosophy, going back at least to Leibniz, whether is it possible to view the world as a network of relations and relations between relations with the role of objects, between which these relat...
Mereology and Infinity
This paper deals with the treatment of infinity and finiteness in mereology. After an overview of some first-order mereological theories, finiteness axioms are introduced along with a mereological definition of “x is fin...