Logic and Philosophy of Science Group Talk (Isaac Wilhelm)

Theories of the parthood relation generally focus on the non-relativistic, non-quantum realm: on parthood among more ordinary, familiar objects like tables and chairs. According to most metaphysicians, however, the parthood relation also obtains among far more fundamental items than that — including the posits of relativistic quantum physics. So in this paper, I propose and defend a theory of parthood based on the posits of algebraic quantum field theories. Among its other virtues, the theory implies several standard mereological principles that are usually adopted as axiomatic primitives. Importantly, the theory supports an argument from a wide class of algebraic quantum field theories to the existence of mereological gunk. And finally, and more generally, the theory illustrates what metaphysicians stand to gain from sustained attention to contemporary physics.