Date of Award

May 2013

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

Joshua Spencer

Committee Members

Michael Liston, Fabrizio Mondadori

Keywords

Mereology, Supersubstantivalism, Unrestricted Composition, Vagueness

Abstract

Unrestricted Composition is the axiom of classical extensional mereology according to which any objects, the xs, compose some y. Perhaps the most powerful argument for Unrestricted Composition is the Argument from Vagueness, which purports to secure Unrestricted Composition on the grounds of a few plausible theses about composition, vagueness, and the number of objects. Here I present Theodore Sider's (2001) formulation of the Argument from Vagueness. I show that given supersubstantivalism--the thesis that material objects are identical to spacetime regions--we are in a position to consider the Argument from Vagueness unsound. I then consider supersubstantivalist responses from Andrew Wake (2010) and Nikk Effingham (2009) and argue that both are inferior to my own.

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