Mereology

The mereology (Greek μέρος meros, part ') is a branch of the ontology and applied logic and deals with the relationship between part and whole. Topological concepts such as edge and context can be examined with mereological agents, from which the Mereotopologie arises. Applications are in the field of artificial intelligence in knowledge representation.

History

A first mereological analysis, we find the difficulty in determining something as one, dealing in Plato's dialogue Parmenides, in which Parmenides Socrates.

Before the advent of set theory has been considered in mathematics and metaphysics rather casually about part and whole. As one of the first Edmund Husserl employs in detail in the second volume of his Logical Investigations of 1901 the relationship between part and whole - this without any formal means.

The concept of mereology coined Stanisław Leśniewski. He wrote 1916-1931 formal work on the subject. In the tradition of the Polish School Leśniewskis builds; it extends the mereological approaches in the course of the 20th century. Since about 1985, however, has been published in this area only a little.

The mereology is mathematics, but it was entirely developed by logicians and computer scientists. Alfred Tarski Leśniewskis students is one of the few mathematicians who published over mereology. Outside of the professional literature on ontology and artificial intelligence it is seldom mentioned; the philosopher David Lewis deals with mereology in his 1991 work Parts of classes.

Mereology and natural language

Understanding the mereology is complicated by the fact that the term "part of" is often used in natural language in an ambiguous manner. This need not be difficult if only mereology is intended logical considerations add a nuance. It is doubtful, however, whether and to carry out certain phrases from natural language translate into mereological predicates.

Harry stained treated in his study of the semantics of natural languages ​​, the question of mereological perspective on issues such as the difference between mass and number and grammatical aspect.