Boolean Mereology
Abstract Most ordinary objects - cats, humans, mountains, ships, tables, etc. - have indeterminate mereological boundaries. If the theory of mereology is meant to include ordinary objects at all, we need it to have some space for mereological indeterminacy. In this paper, we present a n...
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Springer Netherlands
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146363 |
| _version_ | 1826196456854257664 |
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| author | Wu, Xinhe |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Wu, Xinhe |
| author_sort | Wu, Xinhe |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Abstract
Most ordinary objects - cats, humans, mountains, ships, tables, etc. - have indeterminate mereological boundaries. If the theory of mereology is meant to include ordinary objects at all, we need it to have some space for mereological indeterminacy. In this paper, we present a novel degree-theoretic semantics - Boolean semantics - and argue that it is the best degree-theoretic semantics for modeling mereological indeterminacy, for three main reasons: (a) it allows for incomparable degrees of parthood, (b) it enforces classical logic, and (c) it is compatible with all the axioms of classical mereology. Using Boolean semantics, we will also investigate the connection between vagueness in parthood and vagueness in existence/identity. We show that, contrary to what many have argued, the connection takes neither the form of entailment nor the form of exclusion. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:27:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/146363 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T10:27:09Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Springer Netherlands |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1463632023-06-30T18:45:02Z Boolean Mereology Wu, Xinhe Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Linguistics and Philosophy Abstract Most ordinary objects - cats, humans, mountains, ships, tables, etc. - have indeterminate mereological boundaries. If the theory of mereology is meant to include ordinary objects at all, we need it to have some space for mereological indeterminacy. In this paper, we present a novel degree-theoretic semantics - Boolean semantics - and argue that it is the best degree-theoretic semantics for modeling mereological indeterminacy, for three main reasons: (a) it allows for incomparable degrees of parthood, (b) it enforces classical logic, and (c) it is compatible with all the axioms of classical mereology. Using Boolean semantics, we will also investigate the connection between vagueness in parthood and vagueness in existence/identity. We show that, contrary to what many have argued, the connection takes neither the form of entailment nor the form of exclusion. 2022-11-14T12:38:47Z 2022-11-14T12:38:47Z 2022-11-09 2022-11-13T04:15:48Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146363 Wu, Xinhe. 2022. "Boolean Mereology." PUBLISHER_CC en https://doi.org/10.1007/s10992-022-09686-0 Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ The Author(s) application/pdf Springer Netherlands Springer Netherlands |
| spellingShingle | Wu, Xinhe Boolean Mereology |
| title | Boolean Mereology |
| title_full | Boolean Mereology |
| title_fullStr | Boolean Mereology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Boolean Mereology |
| title_short | Boolean Mereology |
| title_sort | boolean mereology |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146363 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT wuxinhe booleanmereology |