Wholes, Sums and Unities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 1-50

3. Wholes

   1. Concrete Comprising Entities

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 51-80

   2. Types of Comprising Entities

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 81-98

   3. Theory and Pre-theory of Wholes

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 99-116

4. Sums

   1. Classical and Neoclassical Mereology

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 117-139

   2. Traditional Higher-grade Wholes as Sums

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 141-165

   3. Criticism of the Notion of a Neoclassical Sum

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 167-188

   4. Sums, Collections and All the Parts

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 189-209

5. Unities

   1. A Theory of Unities

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 211-251

   2. Further Elaborations and Applications

      • Ariel Meirav

      Pages 253-291

6. Back Matter

   Pages 293-312

   PDF

According to Ariel Meirav, the root of some of our most noteworthy difficulties in the metaphysics of concrete entities has been the traditional tendency to focus on the horizontal dimension of wholes (i.e. relations between the parts of a whole), and to neglect the vertical dimension (i.e. relations between the whole itself and its parts). In Wholes, Sums and Unities, Meirav formulates a critique of widely accepted mereological assumptions, presents a new conception of wholes as `Unities', and demonstrates the advantages of this new conception in treating a variety of metaphysical puzzles (such as that of Tibbles the cat). More generally he suggests that conceiving wholes as Unities offers us a new way of understanding the world in non-reductive terms.

• Plato
• bibliography
• concept
• metaphysics
• organ
• physics
• plural
• tradition

• University of Haifa, Israel

  Ariel Meirav

Policies and ethics