Molecules and mereology

Harré, Rom; Llored, Jean-Pierre

doi:10.1007/s10698-013-9181-5

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In this work, I aim to develop a partial answer to the SCQ based on results from thermodynamics. This is a promising route of inquiry: Various authors have approached the problem of composition from a scientific perspective (Schaffer, 2010;Healey, 2013;Calosi and Tarozzi, 2014;McKenzie and Muller, 2017;Husmann and Näger, 2018), and mereology has become an important topic in philosophical approaches to thermodynamics (Needham, 2013(Needham, , 2010a as well as related fields such as chemistry (Needham, 2007;Harré and Llored, 2013) and biology Schulz, 2011, 2014). In particular, I will argue that the xs compose an object if they are in thermal contact.…”

Section: Brutal Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mereology of Thermodynamic Equilibrium

Vrugt

2021

Preprint

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The special composition question (SCQ), which asks under which conditions objects compose a further object, establishes a central debate in modern metaphysics. Recent successes of inductive metaphysics, which studies the implications of the natural sciences for metaphysical problems, suggest that insights into the SCQ can be gained by investigating the physics of composite systems. In this work, I show that the minus first law of thermodynamics, which is concerned with the approach to equilibrium, leads to a new approach to the SCQ, the thermodynamic composition principle (TCP): Multiple systems in (generalized) thermal contact compose a single system. This principle, which is justified based on a systematic classification of possible mereological models for thermodynamic systems, can form the basis of an inductive argument for universalism. A formal analysis of the TCP is provided on the basis of mereotopology, which is a combination of mereology and topology. Here, "thermal contact" can be analyzed using the mereotopological predicate "self-connectedness". Self-connectedness has to be defined in terms of mereological sums to ensure that scattered objects cannot be self-connected.

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Section: Brutal Compositionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mereology of Thermodynamic Equilibrium

Vrugt

2021

Preprint

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“…Thus, the extensional and summative mereology that Husserl believed to be applicable both to formal ontology and to the regional ontologies of higher-order systems, such as chemical wholes, for example, is in fact not adequate for the analysis of such complex systems. In fact, Harré and Llored explain that "the standard mereology for chemical compounds involves the presupposition that just as molecules are ultimate constituents or parts of material things, so atom-cores are parts or constituents of molecules" (p. 133, [21]). Thus, two mereological fallacies are committed when trying to conceptualize electrons as entities.…”

Section: The Limits Of Summative Extensional Mereology For Analyzing ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Limits of Classical Extensional Mereology for the Formalization of Whole–Parts Relations in Quantum Chemical Systems

Banchetti-Robino

2020

Philosophies

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This paper examines whether classical extensional mereology is adequate for formalizing the whole–parts relation in quantum chemical systems. Although other philosophers have argued that classical extensional and summative mereology does not adequately formalize whole–parts relation within organic wholes and social wholes, such critiques often assume that summative mereology is appropriate for formalizing the whole–parts relation in inorganic wholes such as atoms and molecules. However, my discussion of atoms and molecules as they are conceptualized in quantum chemistry will establish that standard mereology cannot adequately fulfill this task, since the properties and behavior of such wholes are context-dependent and cannot simply be reduced to the summative properties of their parts. To the extent that philosophers of chemistry have called for the development of an alternative mereology for quantum chemical systems, this paper ends by proposing behavioral mereology as a promising step in that direction. According to behavioral mereology, considerations of what constitutes a part of a whole is dependent upon the observable behavior displayed by these entities. Thus, relationality and context-dependence are stipulated from the outset and this makes behavioral mereology particularly well-suited as a mereology of quantum chemical wholes. The question of which mereology is appropriate for formalizing the whole–parts relation in quantum chemical systems is relevant to contemporary philosophy of chemistry, since this issue is related to the more general questions of the reducibility of chemical wholes to their parts and of the reducibility of chemistry to physics, which have been of central importance within the philosophy of chemistry for several decades. More generally, this paper puts contemporary discussions of mereology within the philosophy of chemistry into a broader historical and philosophical context. In doing so, this paper also bridges the gap between formal mereology, conceived as a branch of formal ontology, and “applied” mereology, conceived as a branch of philosophy of science.

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“…133). The second of these mereological fallacies involves inferring that "substantive products of an analytical procedure are parts of the substance on which the procedure was performed" [21] (p. 134). Besides accounting for optical activity and chirality, the structural arrangement and connectivity of chemical systems also account for the phenomenon of isomerism.…”

Section: The Limits Of Summative Extensionalmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…to be applicable both to formal ontology and to the regional ontologies of higher-order systems, such as chemical wholes for example, is in fact not adequate for the analysis of such complex systems. In fact, Harré and Llored explain that "the standard mereology for chemical compounds involves the presupposition that just as molecules are ultimate constituents or parts of material things, so atom-cores are parts or constituents of molecules"[21] (p. 133). Thus, two mereological fallacies are committed when trying to conceptualize electrons as entities.…”

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The Limits of Classical Extensional Mereology for the Formalization of > Whole-Parts Relations in Quantum Chemical Systems

Banchetti-Robino¹

2020

Preprint

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This paper examines whether classical extensional mereology is adequate for formalizing the whole-parts relation in quantum chemical systems. Although other philosophers have argued that classical extensional and summative mereology does not adequately formalize whole-parts relation within organic wholes and social wholes, such critiques often assume that summative mereology is appropriate for formalizing the whole-parts relation in inorganic wholes such as atoms and molecules. However, my discussion of atoms and molecules as they are conceptualized in quantum chemistry will establish that standard mereology cannot adequately fulfill this task, since the properties and behavior of such wholes are context-dependent and cannot simply be reduced to the summative properties of their parts. To the extent that philosophers of chemistry have called for the development of an alternative mereology for quantum chemical systems, this paper ends by proposing behavioral mereology as a promising step in that direction. According to behavioral mereology, considerations of what constitutes a part of a whole is dependent upon the observable behavior displayed by these entities. Thus, relationality and context-dependence are stipulated from the outset and this makes behavioral mereology particularly well-suited as a mereology of quantum chemical wholes. The question of which mereology is appropriate for formalizing the whole-parts relation in quantum chemical systems is relevant to contemporary philosophy of chemistry, since this issue is related to the more general question of the reducibility of chemical wholes to their parts and of the reducibility of chemistry to physics, which have been of central importance within the philosophy of chemistry for several decades. More generally, this paper puts contemporary discussions of mereology within the philosophy of chemistry into a broader historical and philosophical context. In doing so, this paper also bridges the gap between formal mereology, conceived as a branch of formal ontology, and ‘applied’ mereology, conceived as a branch of philosophy of science.

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Molecules and mereology

Cited by 15 publications

References 14 publications

The Mereology of Thermodynamic Equilibrium

The Mereology of Thermodynamic Equilibrium

The Limits of Classical Extensional Mereology for the Formalization of Whole–Parts Relations in Quantum Chemical Systems

The Limits of Classical Extensional Mereology for the Formalization of > Whole-Parts Relations in Quantum Chemical Systems

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