Does the notion of part and whole have any application to classes? Lewis argues that it does, and that the smallest parts of any class are its one-membered "singleton" subclasses. That results in a reconception of set theory. The set-theoretical making of one out of many is just the composition of one whole out of many parts. But first, one singleton must be made out of its one member - this is the distinctively set-theoretical primitive operation. Thus set theory is entangled, with mereology: the theory of parts and wholes.
- ISBN10 0631176551
- ISBN13 9780631176558
- Publish Date 10 January 1991
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 13 January 1994
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Imprint Blackwell Publishers
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 112
- Language English