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Ideas of Stanislaw Lesniewski, by Text

[Polish, 1886 - 1939, Professor in Philosophy of Mathematics at Warsaw University. Much work lost in WWII.]

1916 works
p.45 Class membership is not transitive, unlike being part of a part of the whole
     Full Idea: Lesniewski distinguished the part-whole relationship from class membership. Membership is not transitive: if s is an element of t, and t of u, then s is not an element of u, whereas a part of a part is a part of the whole.
     From: report of Stanislaw Lesniewski (works [1916]) by George / Van Evra - The Rise of Modern Logic 7
     A reaction: If I am a member of a sports club, and my club is a member of the league, I am not thereby a member of the league (so clubs are classes, not wholes). This distinction is clearly fairly crucial in ontology.