An Extensional Mereology for Structured Entities

Abstract

In this paper, we present an extensional system of mereology suitable to account for the intuitive distinction between heaplike and non-heaplike entities. Since the need to capture this distinction has been a key motivation for non-extensional mereologies, we first assess the main non-extensional systems advanced in the last years and highlight some mereological and metaphysical difficulties they involve. We then advance a novel program, according to which the distinction between heaplike and non-heaplike entities can be accounted for by bringing together the parthood relation characterized by classical extensional mereology and an Aristotelian extensional notion of potential parthood. Thus, while rejecting the thesis of mereological monism, our proposal is consistent with the thesis of mereological extensionalism. We show that within this framework it is possible to characterize the above-mentioned distinction, to define the relation of material constitution, and to capture three fundamental standpoints in metaphysics.

Un Análisis Sobre La Reducción Ontológica Desde Nociones Mereológicas Estructurales

“…La similitud entre estos tipos de composición consiste en contemplar un aspecto estructural. Ahora bien, la similitud entre nociones conjuntista y mereológicas no es algo nuevo, por ejemplo, tanto la mereología clásica extensional (Lando, 2017, Lewis, 1991Varzi, 2009), como ciertos modelos mereológicos estructurales (Canavotto & Giordani, 2020;Koslicki, 2008;Fine, 1999) suscriben extensionalidad, principio que igual aplica en teoría de conjuntos. 12 Esta idea tiene asidero si (i) pares ordenados son todos mereológicos y que (ii) un par ordenado no puede ser reducido a conjuntos (Lowe, 2008).…”