Mereology

Abstract

Mereology is the formal theory of parthood relations. Mereological theories—have become a chapter of central interest in metaphysics, but also with applications in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of science. This book provides a critical survey and an up-to-date assessment of the main results in this area, with an eye to both their philosophical underpinnings and their formal properties. In doing so, it also aims to investigate the varieties of formal systems currently available. After a brief history of the development of mereology, introductions to different axiomatizations of so-called classical mereology, alongside set-theoretic and algebraic models, are presented in a clear and accessible manner. The book addresses formal and philosophical issues surrounding the notions of parthood, identity, decomposition, atomism, composition, and more. As a result, the book, provides resources to aide the development of new, non-classical theories of parthood (such as non-well-founded mereologies, non-transitive mereologies, non-extensional mereologies, and more). Consideration is devoted to impact that the logical background has on mereological results (including higher-order, temporal, modal, non-classical logics). A detailed index, appendices, and a comprehensive bibliography makes this book an indispensable resource to researchers in every field where part-whole theorizing plays a fundamental role.