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Full Idea
We cannot say - with complete fidelity to the truth of things - that the same whole continues to exist if a part of it is lost.
Gist of Idea
The same whole ceases to exist if a part is lost
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 2.27.11)
Book Ref
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'New Essays on Human Understanding', ed/tr. Remnant/Bennett [CUP 1996], p.238
A Reaction
This is the reference Simons 1987:319 gives when he claims that Leibniz accepts mereological essentialism. I think this is mereological necessity of identity, but not what I call 'essentialism'. That has to distinguish essential from non-essential.
| 16792 | If parts change, the whole changes [William of Ockham] |
| 12884 | The same whole ceases to exist if a part is lost [Leibniz] |
| 12781 | A composite substance is a mere aggregate if its essence is just its parts [Leibniz] |
| 12139 | Mereological essentialism says that every part that ensures the existence is essential [Brody] |
| 8443 | Mereological essentialism says an entity must have exactly those parts [Sosa] |
| 14757 | Mereological essentialism says an object's parts are necessary for its existence [Sider] |
| 12874 | An essential part of an essential part is an essential part of the whole [Simons] |