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Single Idea 10657

[from 'The Structure of Appearance' by Nelson Goodman, in 4. Formal Logic / G. Formal Mereology / 1. Mereology ]

Full Idea

A class (counties of Utah) is different neither from the individual (state of Utah) that contains its members, nor from any other class (acres of Utah) whose members exhaust the whole. For nominalists, distinction of entity means distinction of content.

Gist of Idea

The counties of Utah, and the state, and its acres, are in no way different

Source

Nelson Goodman (The Structure of Appearance [1951], p.26), quoted by Achille Varzi - Mereology 3.1

Book Reference

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.9


A Reaction

This is a nice credo for the nominalist version of mereology. You can still have a mereology that commits you to the wholes as well as the parts. Cf. Lewis in Idea 10660.

Related Idea

Idea 10660 A commitment to cat-fusions is not a further commitment; it is them and they are it [Lewis]