Full Idea
Many philosophers believe that sortal predicates are spatially maximal - for example, that no cat can be a proper spatial part of a cat.
Gist of Idea
Are sortals spatially maximal - so no cat part is allowed to be a cat?
Source
Katherine Hawley (How Things Persist [2001], 2.1)
Book Reference
Hawley,Katherine: 'How Things Persist' [OUP 2004], p.40
A Reaction
This sounds reasonable until you cut the tail off a cat. Presumably what remains is a cat? So presumably that smaller part was always a cat? Only essentialism can make sense of this! You can't just invent rules for sortals.