The Structure of Objects [Paperback]

The objects we encounter in ordinary life and scientific practice -- cars, trees, people, houses, molecules, galaxies, and the like -- have long been a fruitful source of perplexity for metaphysicians.The Structure of Objectsgives an original analysis of those material objects to which we take ourselves to be committed in our ordinary, scientifically informed discourse. Koslicki focuses on material objects in particular, or, as metaphysicians like to call them concrete particulars , i.e., objects which occupy a single region of space-time at each time at which they exist and which have a certain range of properties that go along with space-occupancy, such as weight, shape, color, texture, and temperature.The Structure of Objectsfocuses in particular on the question of how the parts of such objects, assuming that they have parts, are related to the wholes which they compose.

1. Standard Mereology
Introduction
1. The Standard Conception of Composition
2. Ordinary Material Objects as Mereological Sums
3. Composition as Non-Identity
2. A Contemporary Structure-based Mereology
4. A Different Kind of Whole
3. Ancient Structure-Based Mereologies
5. The Role of Structure in Plato's Mereological Writings
6. Aristotle's Refinements of Plato's Theory
4. An Alternative Structure-Based Theory
7. Objects as Structured Wholes
8. In Defense of Kinds
9. Structure
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Kathrin Koslickiis Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her interests are metaphysics, philosophy of language, and ancient Greek philosophy, particularly Aristotle.