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Two Notes on Composition

  • John Biro EMAIL logo
Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 29. August 2022

Abstract

If, as some philosophers maintain, there are no composites, we do not have to ask whether, as others hold, composition is identity. Here I argue that both groups are wrong: there are composites, and composition is not identity. I examine one argument for excluding composites from our ontology, based on their alleged causal redundancy. I give reason to think that composites are ineliminable in causal explanations of macroscopic effects. I go on to argue that the relation between composites and their components is not one of identity.


Corresponding author: John Biro, Philosophy, University of Florida, 300 Griffin-Floyd Hall, Gainesville 32611, USA, E-mail:

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Published Online: 2022-08-29
Published in Print: 2022-09-26

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Heruntergeladen am 20.9.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/mp-2022-0020/html?lang=de
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