On the elements of ontology : attribute instances and structure / D.W. Mertz.

Author
Mertz, D. W. (Donald W.), 1947- [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
  • Berlin, [Germany] ; Boston, [Massachusetts] : De Gruyter, 2016.
  • ©2016
Description
1 online resource (328 p.)

Details

Subject(s)
Series
Summary note
Central to Elements is an assay of the attributional union properties and relations have with their subjects, a topic historically left metaphorical. The work critiques eight Aristotelian assumptions concerning attribute dependence and ‘inherence’, per se subjects (‘substances’), attributes as agent-organizers, and unity-by-a-shared-one. Groups of these assumptions are seen to yield contradiction, vicious regress, or other problems. This analysis, joined with insights from an assay of ubiquitous structure, motivate ten theses explicating attribution and its primary ontic status. The theses detail: attributes proper as individuated instances, structure as instance-generated facts and their two forms of composition, the conditioning role and universal nature of instances’ component intensions, the primacy of attribute instances for generating all forms of composition and complex entities, and identity and indiscernibility criteria for the latter. Principal is the insight that attribution is intension-determined combinatorial agency. It is its systematizing implications that provide solutions to classic problems, e.g., Composition, Individuation, and Universals, and in net generate a comprehensive one-category structuralist ontology.
Notes
Description based upon print version of record.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Source of description
Description based on print version record.
Language note
English
Contents
  • Frontmatter
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • 1. Overview: Attribution, Structure, and the Five Forms of Composition
  • 2. Instance vs. Classic Ontology: Individuation and Adherence
  • 3. Instance vs. Classic Ontology: Intensions and Unification
  • 4. Atomic Structures: Facts and Their Natures
  • 5. Complex Structures and Ontic Atoms
  • References
  • Index
Other format(s)
Issued also in print.
ISBN
  • 3-11-045451-3
  • 3-11-045521-8
OCLC
  • 945612183
  • 942843126
Doi
  • 10.1515/9783110455212
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