Mereology and the Sciences: Parts and Wholes in the by Claudio Calosi,Pierluigi Graziani

This quantity is the 1st systematic and thorough try to examine the relation and the prospective purposes of mereology to modern technological know-how. It gathers contributions from best students within the box and covers quite a lot of clinical theories and practices reminiscent of physics, arithmetic, chemistry, biology, laptop technology and engineering. through the quantity, a number of foundational matters are investigated either from the formal and the empirical element of view.

The first part seems to be on the subject because it applies to physics. The part addresses questions of endurance and composition inside of quantum and relativistic physics and concludes by way of scrutinizing the chance to catch continuity of movement as defined by means of our greatest actual theories inside of gunky area times.

The moment half tackles arithmetic and exhibits easy methods to supply a starting place for point-free geometry of house switching to fuzzy-logic. The relation between mereological sums and set-theoretic suprema is investigated and concerns approximately diversified mereological views corresponding to classical and traditional Mereology are completely discussed.

The 3rd part within the quantity appears at ordinary technology. numerous questions from biology, drugs and chemistry are investigated. From the viewpoint of biology, there's an try and supply axioms for inferring statements approximately half hood among organic entities from statements approximately their spatial relation. From the point of view of chemistry, it really is argued that classical mereological frameworks aren't sufficient to trap the practices of chemistry in that they think about neither temporal nor modal parameters.

The ultimate half introduces machine technological know-how and engineering. a brand new formal mereological framework within which an indeterminate relation of half hood is taken as a primitive concept is built after which utilized to a wide selection of disciplines from robotics to wisdom engineering. a proper framework for discrete mereotopology and its purposes is built and eventually, the significance of mereology for the really new technology of area engineering can also be discussed.