Table Of ContentMereology
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Mereology
A Philosophical Introduction
Giorgio Lando
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-4725-8366-6
ePDF: 978-1-4725-8368-0
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lando, Giorgio, author.
Title: Mereology : a philosophical introduction / Giorgio Lando.
Description: New York : Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016058157| ISBN 9781472583666 (hb) | ISBN 9781472583680 (epdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Whole and parts (Philosophy)
Classification: LCC BD396 .L36 2017 | DDC 111/.82–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016058157
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: What is Mereology? 1
0.1 A general, yet narrow, theory of parthood and composition 1
0.2 Mereology as a discipline, mereology as a theory, mereology
as a philosophical thesis 3
0.3 Mereological monism and David Lewis: The reasons for this book 5
0.4 Mereology is not logic 8
0.5 Mereology is imperfectly understood, problematic, and dubious 8
0.6 Mereology and abstract entities 9
0.7 Mereological monism versus composition as identity 11
0.8 The plan of the book 12
Part One The Methodology of Mereological Monism
Abstract 15
1 Natural Language, Literal Parthood, and Philosophical Mereology 17
1.1 Mereology and the lexical meaning of “part” 17
1.2 “Part” and cognate terms: Three distinctions 18
1.3 Literal parthood versus metaphorical parthood 23
1.4 Spatial parthood, paradigmatic parthood 25
1.5 Formal features and intuitive constraints 27
1.6 Mereology is about nonselective parthood 29
2 Mereological Monism: A Desirable Philosophical Thesis 31
2.1 How to maximize the discriminating power 31
2.2 Mereological monism as a refutation tool: An example 33
2.3 Classical Extensional Mereology: From above and from below 35
3 Is Mereology Formal? 39
3.1 Three senses of formality 39
3.2 How to show that mereology is formal 42
3.3 Formality, existence, identity 44
vi Contents
4 Transitivity and Other Features 47
4.1 Is parthood transitive? Yes 47
4.2 Monism, pluralism, and Ad Hocness 50
4.3 Reflexivity 52
4.4 Antisymmetry 55
4.5 Overlap, Fusion 59
Part Two Extensionalism
Abstract 65
5 Hyperextensionality and Nominalism about Structure 67
5.1 Extensionalism at the origins of mereology 67
5.2 Mereological monism and nominalism 69
5.3 Goodman on hyperextensionality 71
5.4 Hyperextensionality, sets, wholes 72
5.5 Goodman’s approach, atomism, gunk 73
5.6 Is Goodman’s approach circular? 77
5.7 Fine’s principles of obliteration 78
6 What Extensionalism Says 85
6.1 Uniqueness of Composition and Extensionalism 85
6.2 Why Extensionalism is thus formulated 88
6.3 Extensionalism, atoms, and verbal tricks 90
7 Extensionalism and Concrete Entities 93
7.1 A multiplicity of extensional (non-fuzzy) mountains 93
7.2 A kind of duality 96
7.3 Modal properties and counterpart theory 97
7.4 Aesthetic properties and metalinguistic negation 99
7.5 Different things, with different parts: Extensionalism vindicated 104
7.6 A role for structures in Extensionalism 109
7.7 Extensionalism and time 111
8 Extensionalism and Abstract Entities 117
8.1 A different scenario 117
8.2 Facts and propositions 118
8.3 Extensionalism and stipulation 121
8.4 Extensionalism and language 122
8.5 A limitation for Extensionalism 128
8.6 Why it is reasonable to exclude abstract entities 131
Contents vii
9 The Alternatives to Extensionalism 135
9.1 Motivations for a non-extensional mereology 135
9.2 Roles, forms, Extensionalism 137
9.3 Dropping Weak Supplementation 139
9.4 Reciprocal proper parts 140
9.5 Strong Supplementation and Extensionalism 143
Part Three Unrestricted Composition
Abstract 147
10 Mereological Fusion and Plural Logic 149
10.1 Mereological monism and ontological economy 149
10.2 Plural quantification 150
10.3 Mereology is not logic 152
10.4 The alternatives to plural quantification: Sets 155
10.5 The alternatives to plural quantification: Schemas 157
11 The Definition of Fusion 163
11.1 What a fusion should be 163
11.2 Minimal upper bounds and fusions 165
12 Allegedly Counterintuitive Entities 169
12.1 These fusions do not exist 169
12.2 Negative existential intuitions 170
12.3 A variety of intuitions 172
13 The Argument from Vagueness 175
13.1 Quine, Williams, and the argument from vagueness 175
13.2 Lewis’s version of the argument 180
13.3 What cannot be vague 183
13.4 The Lewis-Sider argument versus intuitions 185
13.5 Unrestricted Composition and formal mereology 187
13.6 What about intuitions? 190
14 Unrestricted Composition and Metaontology 193
14.1 Unrestricted Composition, Meinongian existence,
Williamson’s concreteness 193
14.2 Fine’s metaontology 195
14.3 Unrestricted Composition and the narrow
understanding of mereology 199
viii Contents
Appendix: Mereological Monism, without Composition as Identity 201
15.1 Ontological innocence? 201
15.2 Is the whole nothing over and above its parts? 203
15.3 From Composition as Identity to mereological monism? 207
15.4 Why mereological monists should stay clear of Composition
as Identity 210
Notes 211
References 223
Index 231
Acknowledgments
I have presented early versions of some chapters of this book at various
conferences and workshops in Geneva, Zagreb, Exeter, Madrid, and Milan. I
would like to thank all the people who organized and/or attended these events,
and in particular Aaron Cotnoir, Alessandro Giordani, Arianna Betti, Ciro De
Florio, Claudio Calosi, Daniel Korman, Giuliano Torrengo, Kevin Mulligan, Kit
Fine, Massimiliano Carrara, and Peter Simons. A draft of the book has also been
used as a reference text for two graduate seminars on mereology at the Scuola
Normale Superiore in Pisa (Italy) in 2015 and 2016. I would like to thank the
entire audience of these seminars for their patience, and in particular Andrea
Strollo, Lorenzo Azzano, and Martina Botti for raising insightful questions,
and for shaking their heads to express disagreement. I would also like to thank
Massimo Mugnai for organizing lots of interesting and motivating seminars
and research events at the Scuola Normale Superiore in those same years, and
for making me aware that Leibniz's mereology is so interesting and stunningly
similar to the doctrine which is analyzed and defended in this book. Andrea
Borghini, Martina Botti, and Massimiliano Carrara have shared with me some
very significant aspects of my research work over the last years, and I would
like to offer them a particularly warm thanks. Claudio Calosi, Massimiliano
Carrara, Giulia Felappi, Simone Gozzano, and Andrea Strollo have read and
commented the entire manuscript, and contributed to amending a lot of
mistakes. Fabio Carestiato did not read the manuscript but encouraged me to
write it. Sergio Knipe has been a sensible and meticulous proofreader. Carmel
Isaac and all the staff at Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. have followed the
entire production process of the book with remarkable care.
Finally, Diego Romei has proven a constant source of inspiration, warmth,
and love during these years, and the book is dedicated to him.
