Why compositional nihilism dissolves puzzles

Kantin, Holly

doi:10.1007/s11229-018-01924-w

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Holly Kantin offers a fictionalist answer: ‘The [partless individuals] are arranged F wise if and only if they are arranged in way W and, according to the fiction that there are composites , being arranged in way W suffices for composing an object f ’ (2020: 4325, emphases Kantin's). According to Kantin, fictions about composites are conveniences for navigating a composite-free world.…”

Section: The Question Of Arrangementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mereological Composition in Analytic and Buddhist Perspective

Jones¹

2021

J. of the Am. Philos. Assoc.

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Comparing Buddhist and contemporary analytic views about mereological composition reveals significant dissimilarities about the purposes that constrain successful answers to mereological questions, the kinds of considerations taken to be probative in justifying those answers, and the value of mereological inquiry. I develop these dissimilarities by examining three questions relevant to those who deny the existence of composite wholes. The first is a question of justification: What justifies denying the existence of composite wholes as more reasonable than affirming their existence? The second is a question of ontology: Under what conditions are many partless individuals arranged composite-wise? The third is a question of reasonableness: Why, if there are no composites available to experience, do “the folk” find it reasonable to believe there are? I motivate each question, sketch some analytic answers for each, develop in more detail answers from the Theravādin Buddhist scholar Buddhaghosa, and extract comparative lessons.

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Section: The Question Of Arrangementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These conveniences derive from naïve folk beliefs about reality's ontological furniture. When the beliefs facilitate world-navigation, they likely track collective dynamics that matter to human purposes rather than compositional realities that float free from such purposes (Kantin 2020: 4326, citing Rose and Schaffer 2017).…”

Section: The Question Of Arrangementmentioning

confidence: 99%