Scientific article
English

Mereological Sums via Abstraction Principles

Publication date2026-03-09
First online date2026-03-09
Abstract

An object is said to be thin when its existence makes no demands on reality beyond those already made by the existence of certain other objects. Mereological sums are often taken to be thin in this sense, since many metaphysicians have maintained that a sum is nothing over an above the objects that compose it. In this paper, I develop an abstractionist account of the existence and thinness of mereological sums. Specifically, I show that Classical Extensional Mereology and Universalist Mereology, a much weaker non-extensional system that does not prove any supplementation principle, can both be axiomatized via appropriate abstraction principles for sums. I conclude by commenting on the philosophical significance of this result.

Keywords
  • Classical Mereology
  • Mereological Sums
  • Universalism
  • Abstraction Principles
  • Abstractionism
  • Thin Objects
Citation (ISO format)
BERARDI GILI, Pietro. Mereological Sums via Abstraction Principles. In: Philosophical studies, 2026. doi: 10.1007/s11098-026-02486-1
Main files (1)
Article (Accepted version)
accessLevelRestrictedaccessLevelPublic 09/03/2027 OA OTHER
Identifiers
Journal ISSN0031-8116
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