Mixtures and Mass Terms

Dialectica 75 (1) (2021)
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Abstract

In this article, I show that the semantics one adopts for mass terms constrains the metaphysical claims one can make about mixtures. I first expose why mixtures challenge a singularist approach based on mereological sums. After discussing an alternative, non-singularist approach, I take chemistry into account and explain how it changes our perspective on these issues.

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David Nicolas
École Normale Supérieure

Citations of this work

The logic of mass expressions.David Nicolas - 2018 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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References found in this work

Mereology.Achille C. Varzi & A. J. Cotnoir - 2021 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Things and Their Parts.Kit Fine - 1999 - Midwest Studies in Philosophy 23 (1):61-74.
Theories of masses and problems of constitution.Dean W. Zimmerman - 1995 - Philosophical Review 104 (1):53-110.

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