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Single Idea 13282

[filed under theme 4. Formal Logic / G. Formal Mereology / 1. Mereology ]

Full Idea

Aristotle proposes to relativise unity and plurality, so that a single object can be both one (indivisible) and many (divisible) simultaneously, without contradiction, relative to different measures. Wholeness has degrees, with the strength of the unity.

Gist of Idea

Aristotle relativises the notion of wholeness to different measures

Source

report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Kathrin Koslicki - The Structure of Objects 7.2.12

Book Ref

Koslicki,Kathrin: 'The Structure of Objects' [OUP 2008], p.193

A Reaction

[see Koslicki's account of Aristotle for details] As always, the Aristotelian approach looks by far the most promising. Simplistic mechanical accounts of how parts make wholes aren't going to work. We must include the conventional and conceptual bit.

The 23 ideas with the same theme [formalised general theory of how parts relate to wholes]:

15845 It seems absurd that seeing a person's limbs, the one is many, and yet the many are one [Plato]
13270 Are a part and whole one or many? Either way, what is the cause? [Aristotle]
13282 Aristotle relativises the notion of wholeness to different measures [Aristotle, by Koslicki]
10397 Abelard's mereology involves privileged and natural divisions, and principal parts [Abelard, by King,P]
10706 Dedekind originally thought more in terms of mereology than of sets [Dedekind, by Potter]
14121 The part-whole relation is ultimate and indefinable [Russell]
10657 The counties of Utah, and the state, and its acres, are in no way different [Goodman]
10806 Megethology is the result of adding plural quantification to mereology [Lewis]
10662 Mereology is 'nihilistic' (just atoms) or 'universal' (no restrictions on what is 'whole') [Inwagen, by Varzi]
13331 Part and whole contribute asymmetrically to one another, so must differ [Fine,K]
9928 Mereology implies that acceptance of entities entails acceptance of conglomerates [Burgess/Rosen]
15004 'Gunk' is an object in which proper parts all endlessly have further proper parts [Sider]
15841 Mereology began as a nominalist revolt against the commitments of set theory [Harte,V]
8465 Mereology has been exploited by some nominalists to achieve the effects of set theory [Orenstein]
10648 Mereology need not be nominalist, though it is often taken to be so [Varzi]
10655 Are there mereological atoms, and are all objects made of them? [Varzi]
10659 There is something of which everything is part, but no null-thing which is part of everything [Varzi]
12815 Classical mereology doesn't apply well to the objects around us [Simons]
12819 A 'part' has different meanings for individuals, classes, and masses [Simons]
12832 Complement: the rest of the Universe apart from some individual, written x-bar [Simons]
12834 Criticisms of mereology: parts? transitivity? sums? identity? four-dimensional? [Simons]
10707 Mereology elides the distinction between the cards in a pack and the suits [Potter]
13258 The 'aggregative' objections says mereology gets existence and location of objects wrong [Koslicki]