Download Wholes, Sums and Unities by Ariel Meirav (auth.) PDF

By Ariel Meirav (auth.)

According to Ariel Meirav, the foundation of a few of our such a lot noteworthy problems within the metaphysics of concrete entities has been the normal tendency to target the horizontal measurement of wholes (i.e. kinfolk among the components of a whole), and to forget the vertical size (i.e. kin among the entire itself and its parts). In Wholes, Sums and Unities, Meirav formulates a critique of generally approved mereological assumptions, provides a brand new belief of wholes as `Unities', and demonstrates the benefits of this new belief in treating quite a few metaphysical puzzles (such as that of Tibbles the cat). extra commonly he means that conceiving wholes as Unities deals us a brand new manner of figuring out the realm in non-reductive terms.

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The relation indicated by 'proper part' is irreflexive and transitive. That is, if a is a proper part of b then b is not a proper part of a; and if a is a proper part of band b is a proper part of c, then a is a proper part of c. Two individuals may 'overlap' one another, that is, they may have some part in common. If they do not overlap, they are said to be 'disjoint' from one another. 35 Whenever there are two individuals, a and b, there is a unique individual described as the 'sum' of a and b, where a and b are parts of their sum More generally, whenever there are many individuals, a], ...

And logicians interested in the logical formalization of language, as Frege was, should be concerned with such classes. On the other hand there is the notion of a 'collective whole', associated with our description of everyday concrete entities as wholes. Frege suggested that the distinction turns on the different ways in which entities are assumed to belong to the two kinds of class, respectively, a point we have just noted in (S4) above. There are two ways in which an entity can belong to a class as extension, whereas there is only one way in which an entity can belong to a collective whole.

Generally speaking, the singleton of a will be distinct from a. Thus, if a is not a set, then A, the singleton of a, must be distinct from a, by the Principle of Extensionality. For A has a as a member, whereas a is not a set and so in particular does not have itself as a member. Furthermore, if a is not a set, then it follows that there is an infinite hierarchy of singletons built upon it - {a}, {{ a } }, {{ {a} } }, etc. all distinct from one another. We do not think of wholes as being associated with similar hierarchies.

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