Against mereological nihilism

Jonathan Tallant

pp. 1511-1527

in: Synthese 191 (7), 2014.

Abstract

I argue that mereological nihilism fails because it cannot answer (what I describe as) the special arrangement question: when is it true that the xs (the mereological simples) are arranged F-wise? I suggest that the answers given in the literature fail and that the obvious responses that could be made look to undermine the motivations for adopting nihilism in the first place.