Mereology

Mereology is the science of parts and wholes: what they are, how they relate, and how complex things are built from simpler ones. 

Mereology is the theory of parthood relations: of the relations of part to whole and the relations of part to part within a whole.

A Taxonomy of Whole-Part Relations points out that part-whole relations can be broken out into six different groups:

  • component-integral object: for example (pedal – bike) the pedal is an integral part of the bicycle
  • member-collection: for example (ship – fleet) each ship is a member of the fleet
  • portion-mass: for example (slice – pie) a slice is a portion of a pie
  • stuff-object: for example (steel – car) steel is the stuff from which the car is made
  • feature-activity: for example (paying – shopping) paying is a feature or component of shopping
  • place-area: for example (Everglades – Florida) the Everglades is a place within Florida
The following graphic shows the different possible whole to part or part to whole relationships:


Additional Information:

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