The ontological parsimony of mereology
Philosophical Studies 172 (12):3253-3271 (2015)
Abstract
Lewis famously argued that mereology is ontologically innocent. Many who have considered this claim believe he was mistaken. Mereology is not innocent, because its acceptance entails the acceptance of sums, new objects that were not previously part of one’s ontology. This argument, the argument from ontological parsimony, has two versions: a qualitative and a quantitative one. I argue that the defender of mereology can neutralize both arguments by holding that, given mereology, a commitment to the parts of an object is not an extra ontological commitment, made in addition to the commitment to the object; and that if the parts of an object are ‘ontologically innocent’, then sums cannot fail to be innocent eitherAuthor's Profile
DOI
10.1007/s11098-015-0468-3
My notes
Similar books and articles
Ontological Innocence.Katherine Hawley - 2014 - In A. J. Cotnoir & Donald L. M. Baxter (eds.), Composition as Identity. Oxford University Press. pp. 70-89.
On the ontological commitment of mereology.Massimiliano Carrara & Enrico Martino - 2009 - Review of Symbolic Logic 2 (1):164-174.
Grounding Megethology on Plural Reference.Massimiliano Carrara & Enrico Martino - 2015 - Studia Logica 103 (4):697-711.
Two kinds of ontological commitment.Howard Peacock - 2011 - Philosophical Quarterly 61 (242):79-104.
A General Concept of Being a Part of a Whole.Andrzej Pietruszczak - 2014 - Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 55 (3):359-381.
Formal Theories of Parthood.Achille C. Varzi - 2014 - In Claudio Calosi & Pierluigi Graziani (eds.), Mereology and the Sciences: Parts and Wholes in the Contemporary Scientific Context. Springer Verlag. pp. 359–370.
Le strutture dell'ordinario.Achille C. Varzi - 1999 - In Luigi Lombardi Vallauri (ed.), Logos dell’essere, logos della norma. Editrice Adriatica. pp. 489–530.
Non-wellfounded Mereology.Aaron J. Cotnoir & Andrew Bacon - 2012 - Review of Symbolic Logic 5 (2):187-204.
Notes on the Mereology of Classes.Joshua Phillip Finkler - 2000 - Dissertation, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Analytics
Added to PP
2015-03-10
Downloads
149 (#86,049)
6 months
2 (#298,443)
2015-03-10
Downloads
149 (#86,049)
6 months
2 (#298,443)
Historical graph of downloads
Author's Profile
Citations of this work
Mereological Nihilism and Theoretical Unification.Andrew Brenner - 2015 - Analytic Philosophy 56 (4):318-337.
The limits of classical mereology: Mixed fusions and the failures of mereological hybridism.Joshua Kelleher - 2020 - Dissertation, The University of Queensland