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Single Idea 10650

[filed under theme 9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 8. Parts of Objects / a. Parts of objects ]

Full Idea

In military usage, persons can be parts of small units, and small units parts of large ones; but persons are never parts of large units.

Gist of Idea

In the military, persons are parts of parts of large units, but not parts of those large units

Source

Nicholas Rescher (Axioms for the Part Relation [1955]), quoted by Achille Varzi - Mereology 2.1

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.4

A Reaction

This much-cited objection to the transitivity of the 'part' relation seems very odd. There could hardly be an army or a regiment if there weren't soldiers to make up parts of it.

The 17 ideas from Nicholas Rescher

10650 In the military, persons are parts of parts of large units, but not parts of those large units [Rescher]
22626 Process philosophy insists that processes are not inferior in being to substances [Rescher]
24385 Process philosophy is either phenomenological or biological or physical [Rescher]
24387 Prefer activity to substance, process to product, change to persistence, novelty to continuity [Rescher]
24386 Processes and events like storms are just as real as things like dogs [Rescher]
24388 A process is a coordinated group of changes, linked causally or functionally [Rescher]
24389 Aristotelians say all processes are 'owned', and are thus subordinate to things [Rescher]
24390 The orthodox view sees processes as the manifestations of stable dispositions of things [Rescher]
24391 Processes without entities are possible, but there can't be entities without processes [Rescher]
24392 Primary properties describe what it is; secondary properties underlie the impact and responses [Rescher]
24394 Maybe physical objects are stability-waves in a sea of processes [Rescher]
24393 The world contains many 'things' which are not substances [Rescher]
24395 Processes instantiate and transmit patterns, though these are not predictable [Rescher]
24396 What has value for humans is quite separate from any ideas of endurance and permanency [Rescher]
24397 Truth is indeterminate in processes like coming to be and passing away [Rescher]
24398 A key form of knowing-how is knowing how to obtain and apply knowing-that [Rescher]
20365 We only see points in motion, and thereby infer movement [Rescher]