Levels of Ontology and Natural Language: the Case of the Ontology of Parts and Wholes

In James Miller (ed.), The Language of Ontology. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2021)
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Abstract

It is common in contemporary metaphysics to distinguish two levels of ontology: the ontology of ordinary objects and the ontology of fundamental reality. This papers argues that natural language reflects not only the ontology of ordinary objects, but also a language-driven ontology, which is involved in the mass-count distinction and part-structure-sensitive semantic selection, as well as perhaps the light ontology of pleonastic entities. The paper recasts my older theory of situated part structures without situations, making use of a primitive notion of unity.

Author's Profile

Friederike Moltmann
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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