Extended Simples, Unextended Complexes.

Both extended simples and unextended complexes have been extensively discussed and widely used in metaphysics and philosophy of physics. However, the characterizations of such notions are not entirely satisfactory inasmuch as they rely on a mereological notion of extension that is too simplistic. Ac...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Philosophical Logic Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 643 - 669
Autor principal: Calosi, Claudio
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Apr2023
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Both extended simples and unextended complexes have been extensively discussed and widely used in metaphysics and philosophy of physics. However, the characterizations of such notions are not entirely satisfactory inasmuch as they rely on a mereological notion of extension that is too simplistic. According to such a mereological notion, being extended boils down to having a mereologically complex exact location. In this paper, I make a detailed plea to supplement this notion of extension with a different one that is phrased in terms of measure theory. This proposal has significant philosophical payoffs. I provide new characterizations of both extended simples and unextended complexes, that help re-evaluating the question of whether such entities are metaphysically possible. Finally, I advance several suggestions as to how different notions of extension relate, first, to one another and, second, to mereological structure.