Parts and Wholes

Thinking about parts and wholes is fundamental to thinking about what exists and what structures and properties existents have. This volume presents materials that will expand our understanding of how medieval thinkers understood parts, wholes, and the constitution, identity, and individuation of objects. It consists of a substantial introduction, case studies by experts in the field, and primary sources (most translated into English for the first time). This book will be of interest to students of medieval metaphysics as well as to those who are interested in the history of mereology.

Introduction, Andrew W. Arlig

Part I: Historical Perspectives

A Brief Introduction to Boethian Mereology — Andrew W. Arlig

Part II: Case Studies

Abelard’s Early Mereology: Wholes and Parts in the Dialectica — Peter King

The Collectio-theory of Universals and the Semantics of Collective Nouns — Irène Rosier-Catach

The Soul and Its Parts — Dominik Perler

Parts, Wholes, and the Elements in Some Medieval Philosophers — Thomas M. Ward

When a Part is not a Part: Hylomorphic Emanationist Mereology in Ibn Gabirol — Sarah Pessin

Part II: Texts and Translations

Types of Wholes and Parts — Andrew W. Arlig

Connected Wholes and the Priority of the Part — Peter King

Wholes, Aggregates and Collective Nouns — Andrew W. Arlig & Irène Rosier-Catach

Mereological Structures in the Soul — Andrew W. Arlig

The ‘Virtual’ Presence of Elements and Non-mereological Composition — Andrew W. Arlig & Thomas M. Ward

Prime Matter as an Essential Part of Substances — Andrew W. Arlig