Non-wellfounded Mereology

Review of Symbolic Logic 5 (2):187-204 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper is a systematic exploration of non-wellfounded mereology. Motivations and applications suggested in the literature are considered. Some are exotic like Borges’ Aleph, and the Trinity; other examples are less so, like time traveling bricks, and even Geach’s Tibbles the Cat. The authors point out that the transitivity of non-wellfounded parthood is inconsistent with extensionality. A non-wellfounded mereology is developed with careful consideration paid to rival notions of supplementation and fusion. Two equivalent axiomatizations are given, and are compared to classical mereology. We provide a class of models with respect to which the non-wellfounded mereology is sound and complete.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,221

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

What Is Classical Mereology?Paul Hovda - 2009 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 38 (1):55 - 82.
Medieval mereology.Desmond Paul Henry - 1991 - Philadelphia: B.R. Grüner.
Multilocation and mereology.Shieva Kleinschmidt - 2011 - Philosophical Perspectives 25 (1):253-276.
Mereology and modality.Gabriel Uzquiano - 2014 - In Shieva Kleinschmidt (ed.), Mereology and Location. Oxford University Press. pp. 33-56.
Mereology on Topological and Convergence Spaces.Daniel R. Patten - 2013 - Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 54 (1):21-31.
Tensed Mereology.Paul Hovda - 2013 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 42 (2):241-283.
Mereology without weak supplementation.Donald Smith - 2009 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 87 (3):505 – 511.

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-02-03

Downloads
339 (#53,699)

6 months
30 (#92,884)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Andrew Bacon
University of Southern California
A. J. Cotnoir
University of St. Andrews

Citations of this work

Fundamentality.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2023 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Mereology.Achille C. Varzi - 2016 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Boring Infinite Descent.Tuomas E. Tahko - 2014 - Metaphilosophy 45 (2):257-269.
Composition.Daniel Z. Korman & Chad Carmichael - 2016 - Oxford Handbooks Online.

View all 36 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

Parts: a study in ontology.Peter M. Simons - 1987 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Logic, semantics, metamathematics.Alfred Tarski - 1956 - Oxford,: Clarendon Press. Edited by John Corcoran & J. H. Woodger.
Reference and generality.P. T. Geach - 1962 - Ithaca, N.Y.,: Cornell University Press. Edited by Michael C. Rea.

View all 35 references / Add more references