Single Idea 10648

[catalogued under 4. Formal Logic / G. Formal Mereology / 1. Mereology]

Full Idea

While mereology was originally offered with a nominalist viewpoint, resulting in a conception of mereology as an ontologically parsimonious alternative to set theory, there is no necessary link between analysis of parthood and nominalism.

Gist of Idea

Mereology need not be nominalist, though it is often taken to be so

Source

Achille Varzi (Mereology [2003], 1)

Book Reference

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.3


A Reaction

He cites Lesniewski and Leonard-and-Goodman. Do you allow something called a 'whole' into your ontology, as well as the parts? He observes that while 'wholes' can be concrete, they can also be abstract, if the parts are abstract.