'Identity' as a mereological term

Jeroen Smid

doi:10.1007/s11229-016-1056-6

'Identity' as a mereological term

Jeroen Smid

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

5 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

The mereological predicate ‘is part of’ can be used to define the predicate ‘is identical with’. I argue that this entails that mereological theories can be ideologically simpler than nihilistic theories that do not use the notion of parthood—contrary to what has been argued by Ted Sider. Moreover, if one accepts an extensional mereology, there are good philosophical reasons apart from ideological simplicity to give a mereological definition of identity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2367-2385
Journal	Synthese
Volume	194
Issue number	7
Early online date	2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-016-1056-6
Publication status	Published - 2017 Jul

Subject classification (UKÄ)

Philosophy

Keywords

Parthood
Identity
Mereology Nihilism
Ideological simplicity
Theory-choice

Access to Document

10.1007/s11229-016-1056-6

5 Citations
1 Doctoral Thesis (compilation)

Parthood, Identity, and Composition: Studies of Mereology
Smid, J., 2017, 226 p.
Research output: Thesis › Doctoral Thesis (compilation)

1 Active

Metaphysics and Collectivity
Petersson, B., Blomberg, O., Björnsson, G., Brännmark, J., Burman, Å., Hansson Wahlberg, T., Lo Presti, P., Maurin, A., Smid, J. & Szigeti, A.
Swedish Research Council
2012/03/01 → …
Project: Network

Cite this

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title = "'Identity' as a mereological term",

abstract = "The mereological predicate {\textquoteleft}is part of{\textquoteright} can be used to define the predicate {\textquoteleft}is identical with{\textquoteright}. I argue that this entails that mereological theories can be ideologically simpler than nihilistic theories that do not use the notion of parthood—contrary to what has been argued by Ted Sider. Moreover, if one accepts an extensional mereology, there are good philosophical reasons apart from ideological simplicity to give a mereological definition of identity.",

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AB - The mereological predicate ‘is part of’ can be used to define the predicate ‘is identical with’. I argue that this entails that mereological theories can be ideologically simpler than nihilistic theories that do not use the notion of parthood—contrary to what has been argued by Ted Sider. Moreover, if one accepts an extensional mereology, there are good philosophical reasons apart from ideological simplicity to give a mereological definition of identity.

KW - Parthood

KW - Identity

KW - Mereology Nihilism

KW - Ideological simplicity

KW - Theory-choice

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JF - Synthese

SN - 0039-7857

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ER -

'Identity' as a mereological term

Abstract

Subject classification (UKÄ)

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Research output

Parthood, Identity, and Composition: Studies of Mereology

Projects

Metaphysics and Collectivity

Cite this