598B Mereology #423465
W 7-9pm (141 Park)

Thomas Bittner

In this course we start with a formal analysis of General Extensional Mereology (GEM). We will discuss the basic axioms and some theorems as well as their philosophical implications. We then extend GEM by adding further primitives. We discuss several strategies of extending mereology to mereotopology, to a theory of location, holes, and environments. The course can be regarded as an exercise in the use of logical methods for philosophical purposes.

Grading

 

Grades will be determined as follows:

30%����������� assignments

70%��� 60-90 minute powerpoint presentation during class.

 

If you have problems with the assignments or if you have messed up your presentation then you can improve your grade by submitting an essay: approximately double-spaced 10 page paper, due November 15.�

 

Syllabus:

 

27.08.

Intro & overview, history, and review of logical principles.

Readings:

  • Burkhardt, H. and Dofour, C.A., 1991, Part/Whole I: History. In H. Burkhardt and B. Smith (eds), Handbook of Metaphysics and Ontology. pp. 663 – 675, Muenchen, Philosophia.
  • Simons, P., 1991, Part/Whole II: Mereology since 1900. In H. Burkhardt and B. Smith (eds), Handbook of Metaphysics and Ontology. pp. 663 – 675, Muenchen, Philosophia.
  • Barry Smith and Kevin Mulligan, "Pieces of a Theory", in Barry Smith (ed.), Parts and Moments. Studies in Logic and Formal Ontology , Munich: Philosophia, 1982, 15-109. ftp

 

03.09.

General Extensional Mereology (GEM) – the formal theory

Readings:

  • Varzi, A., ‘Mereology’, in Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford: CSLI (internet publication), 2003. ftp
  • Simons, P. M., 1987, Parts. A Study in Ontology, Oxford: Clarendon, pg. 25-45

10.09.

General Extensional Mereology: Problems with transitivity and mereology and persistence over time

Readings:

  • Rescher N., 1955, 'Axioms for the Part Relation', Philosophical Studies 6, 8-11, ftp
  • Winston, M., Chaffin, R., and Herrmann, D., 1987, ‘A Taxonomy of Part-Whole Relations’, Cognitive Science 11: 417-444.
  • Gerstl, P. and Pribbenow, S., 1995, ‘Midwinters, End Games, and Bodyparts. A Classification of Part-Whole Relations’, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 43: 865-889. ftp
  • J.J. Thomson, 1983, Parthood and Identity across time, Journal of Philosophy, 80, 201-220, ftp
  • Cartwright, R., 1975, 'Scattered Objects', in K. Lehrer (ed.), Analysis and Metaphysics, Dordrecht: Reidel, 153-171. ftp
  • Sider, T., 1997, Four-Dimensionalism, Philosophical Review 106: 197-231

17.09.

General Extensional Mereology: Problems with undetached parts, constitution, and the summation principle

Readings:

  • Doepke F.C., 45-60, Spatially Coinciding Objects, Ratio 24: 45-60
  • Zimmerman D. W., 1995, 'Theories of Masses and Problems of Constitution', Philosophical Review 104, 53-110.
  • Burke M. B., 1992, 'Copper Statues and Pieces of Copper: A Challenge to the Standard Account', Analysis 52, 12-17.
  • Lowe E.J., 1995, Coinciding Objects: In Defense of the Standard Account, Analysis 55, 171-178.
  • Varzi, A., ‘Mereological Commitments’, 2000, Dialectica, 54:4, 283-305 ftp
  • Varzi, A., ‘Basic Problems for Mereotopology’, in Nicola Guarino (ed.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems, Amsterdam and Oxford: IOS Press, 1998, pp. 29-38. ftp

24.09.

Hierarchy of mereological theories

Readings:

  • Varzi, A. ‘Parts, Wholes, and Part-Whole Relations: The Prospects of Mereotopology’, 1996, Data and Knowledge Engineering, 20:3, 259-86. Sections 1 and 2� ftp
  • Masolo, C. and Vieu, L., 1999, Atomicity vs. Infinite Divisibility of Space, in C. Freksa and D. Mark� (eds), ‘Spatial Information Theory. Cognitive and Computational Foundations of Geographic Information Science. International Conference COSIT'99’, Sec. 3. ftp

01.10.

Mereotopology (1) – topological primitives are added to a mereological basis

Readings:

  • Varzi, A. ‘Parts, Wholes, and Part-Whole Relations: The Prospects of Mereotopology’, 1996, Data and Knowledge Engineering, 20:3, 259-86. Sections 3 and 4
  • Smith, B., Mereotopology: A Theory of Parts and Boundaries, Data and Knowledge Engineering, 20 (1996), 287-303 ftp

08.10.

Mereotopology (2) – mereology as sub-theory of topology

Readings:

  • Varzi, A. ‘Parts, Wholes, and Part-Whole Relations: The Prospects of Mereotopology’, 1996, Data and Knowledge Engineering, 20:3, 259-86. Section 5
  • Masolo, C. and Vieu, L., 1999, Atomicity vs. Infinite Divisibility of Space, in C. Freksa and D. Mark� (eds), ‘Spatial Information Theory. Cognitive and Computational Foundations of Geographic Information Science. International Conference COSIT'99’, Sec. 4.1, ftp
  • A Spatial Logic Based on Regions and Connection, D. A. Randell, Z. Cui and A. G. Cohn, Proc. 3rd Int. Conf. on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, pp 165-176, Morgan Kaufmann, San Mateo, (1992). ftp

15.10.

Mereotopology (3) – topology as domain specific sub-theory of mereology

Readings:

  • Varzi, A. ‘Parts, Wholes, and Part-Whole Relations: The Prospects of Mereotopology’, 1996, Data and Knowledge Engineering, 20:3, 259-86. Section 6
  • Eschenbach, Carola & Wolfgang Heydrich (1995). Classical mereology and restricted domains. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 43. 723-740. ftp

22.10.

Theories of location

Reading:

  • Casati, R. and Varzi, A., ‘The Structure of Spatial Localization’, 1996 , Philosophical Studies, 82:2, 205-239. ftp
  • Donnelly, M. (2003) Layered Mereotopology, IJCAI 2003 -- Eighteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.
  • Ontological Tools for Geographic Representation, Roberto Casati, Barry Smith, and Achille C. Varzi, in: N. Guarino (ed.), Formal Ontology in Information Systems, Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1998, pp. 77-85. ftp

29.10.

Holes

Readings:

  • Varzi, A., ‘Holes’, in Edward N. Zalta (ed.), Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford: CSLI (internet publication), 1996. ftp
  • Varzi, A., ‘Reasoning about Space: The Hole Story’, Logic and Logical Philosophy, 4, 3-39, 1996
  • Casati, R. and Varzi, A. , Holes and Other Superficialities, Cambridge, MA, and London: MIT Press, Bradford Books, 1994

05.11.

Environments and niches

Readings:

  • Smith, B. and Varzi, A., The Niche, Nous, 33:2 (1999) 198–222 ftp
  • Smith, B and Varzi, A.., ‘Surrounding Space’, Theory in Biosciences, 120:2, 139-162, 2002 ftp
  • Smith, B. and Varzi, A., ‘Environmental Metaphysics’, in Uwe Meixner (ed.), Metaphysics in the Post-Metaphysical Age. Proceedings of the 22th International Wittgenstein Symposium, Vienna: Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, pp. 231-239, 2001 ftp

12.11.

Rough and granular� mereology

Readings:

  • Polkowski L., Skowron A., 1996. Rough mereology: A New Paradigm for Approximate Reasoning. To appear in: Journal of Approximate Reasoning, ftp
  • Bittner, T., A mereological theory of frames of reference, technical report, IFOMIS, University of Leipzig, ftp

19.11.

Foundation

Readings:

  • Fine, K., ‘Part-whole’ in B. Smith and D.W. Smith (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Husserl, New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 463-85, 1995
  • Readings: Null, G.T., 1983, ‘A First Order System for Non-Universal Part-whole and Foundation relations’, in Embree 1983, 463-484
  • Simons, P. M., 1987, Parts. A Study in Ontology, Oxford: Clarendon,
    Section 8

26.11.

No class

03.12.

Summary, Conclusions

 

General readings:

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