From slot mereology to a mereology of slots

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Tarbouriech, Cédric^{a; *} | Vieu, Laure^{a; b} | Barton, Adrien^{a; c} | Éthier, Jean-François^c

Affiliations: [a] Institut de Recherche en Informatique de Toulouse (IRIT), Université de Toulouse & CNRS, France | [b] Laboratorio di Ontologia Applicata, ISTC-CNR, Italy | [c] Groupe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Informatique de la Santé (GRIIS), Sherbrooke University, Québec, Canada

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].

Note: [] Accepted by: Boyan Brodaric

Abstract: In 2013, Bennett proposed a mereological theory in which the parthood relation is defined on the basis of two primitive relations: a is a part of b iff a fills a slot owned by b. However, this theory has issues counting how many parts an entity has. We explore the various counting problems and propose a new theory to solve them. Keeping the core idea of Bennett’s slots, this theory introduces mereological relations between slots. This theory enables us to solve all known counting problems and to go beyond the limits of Bennett’s theory by theorising expected features of mereological theories: supplementation principles and mereological sum and fusion. The theory is illustrated on ontological issues on the nature of structural universals and informational entities.

Keywords: Mereology, slot mereology, supplementation, mereological sum, mereological fusion, structural universal, informational entity

DOI: 10.3233/AO-230051

Journal: Applied Ontology, vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 181-230, 2024