Seminars of Philosophy of Perception, Mind, and Language

Giorgio Lando (Università degli Studi dell'Aquila)

Perception, Mind, and Language colloquium - Expansionism and Mereology

13 gennaio 2020, h. 12:30-14:30

Sala Enzo Paci, Direzione del Dipartimento di Filosofia, Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milano.

Abstract

Mereological universalists, according to whom every plurality of entities has a fusion, usually claim that most quantifications are restricted to ordinary entities. However, there is no evidence that our usual quantifications over ordinary objects are restricted. In this talk I will explore an alternative way of reconciling Mereological Universalism with our usual quantifications. I resort to a form of ontological expansionism and to so-called interpretational modalities. Quantifications over ordinary objects are the initial stages of the expansion. From these initial stages, expansions can proceed upwards (fusions of entities in the domain of quantification are added), downwards (parts of entities in the domain are added), and sidewards (entities which are mereologically disjoint from the entities in the domain are added). These expansions are based on a variety of epistemic and pragmatic reasons and raise different kinds of problems.

La conferenza si terrà in inglese.

La partecipazione è fortemente raccomandata agli allievi del Scuola di Dottorato in Filosofia e Scienze dell’Uomo.

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