Thinking about space is thinking about spatial things. The table is on the carpet; hence the carpet is under the table. The vase is in the box; hence the box is not in the vase. But what does it mean for an object to be somewhere? How are objects tied to the space they occupy? In this book Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi address some of the fundamental issues in the philosophy of spatial representation. Their starting point is an analysis of the interplay between mereology (the study of part/whole relations), topology (the study of spatial continuity and compactness), and the theory of spatial location proper. This leads to a unified framework for spatial representation understood quite broadly as a theory of the representation of spatial entities. The framework is then tested against some classical metaphysical questions such as- Are parts essential to their wholes? Is spatial co-location a sufficient criterion of identity? What (if anything) distinguishes material objects from events and other spatial entities? The concluding chapters deal with applications to topics as diverse as the logical analysis of movement and the semantics of maps.
By:
Roberto Casati (Senior Researcher CNRS ),
Achille C. Varzi
Imprint: Bradford Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 231mm,
Width: 160mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 386g
ISBN: 9780262517072
ISBN 10: 0262517078
Series: Parts and Places
Pages: 248
Publication Date: 01 January 2003
Recommended Age: From 18 years
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Parts and PlacesThe Structures of Spatial RepresentationRoberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi Acknowledgments 1 Introduction 2 Spatial Entities 2.1 Parthood and Wholeness 2.2 The Topological Option 2.3 The Hole Trouble 2.4 The Compositional Approach 2.5 Negative Parts? 2.6 The Need for Explicit Theories 3 Parthood Structures 3.1 Preliminaries 3.2 The Lexical Core of a Mereological Theory 3.3 Supplementation Principles 3.4 Closure Principles 3.5 Unrestricted Fusions 3.6 Atomism 4 Connection Structures 4.1 Entering Topology 4.2 Combining Mereology and Topology: The First Strategy 4.3 Further Mereotopological Axioms and Principles 4.4 The Second Strategy: Topology as a Basis for Mereology 4.5 Topology and Restricted Mereology 5 Boundaries 5.1 Boundary Puzzles 5.2 Constraints on Theories 5.3 Boundaries as façons de parler 5.4 The Incongruities of Boundarylessness 5.5 A Variant Treatment 5.6 Accepting Boundaries 5.7 Static vs. Dynamic Demarcations 5.8 Further Boundary Issues 6 Parts and Counterparts 6.1 Two Aspects of Potentiality 6.2 The Idea of a Countermereology 6.3 Some Questions Answered 6.4 Mereological Relativity 6.5 Counting Policies 7 Modes of Location 7.1 Having an Address, Being in a Place 7.2 Principles of Location 7.3 Regions 7.4 The Regions of Things 7.5 Location, Connection, and Parthood 7.6 Sharing an Address 7.7 Owning an Address 8 Empty Places 8.1 The Geometry of Containment 8.2 Holesome Relations 8.3 Modes of Containment 8.4 More on Negative Parts 9 Spatial Essentialism 9.1 Mereological and Topological Essentialism 9.2 Topological Essentialism Revisited 9.3 Spheres and Doughnuts 9.4 Locative Essentialism 10 Events in Space 10.1 Spatio-Temporal Analogies 10.2 Extension and Duration 10.3 Motion and Location 10.4 Imperfect Complementarity? 10.5 Types of Movement 10.6 More Analogies Appendix: Extensional Rest and Motion 11 Maps 11.1 The Data 11.2 Formal Maps 11.3 Map Stages 11.4 Formal Semantics for Formal Maps 11.4 Ordinary Maps 12 Conclusion A Broader Circle of Spatial Concepts Metric Facts Spatial Reasoning Spatial Logics Modalities Absolute vs. Relative Space Naive Topology The Space of Geography Spatiotemporal (Dis)Analogies Spatial Language, Mental Maps, and Localese Actual and Possible Concepts Notes References Index
Roberto Casati is the Director of the Jean Nicod Instituteand Professor at EHESS in Paris. He is the coauthor of Holes and Other Superficialities and Parts and Places- The Structures of Spatial Representation, both published by the MIT Press.
Reviews for Parts and Places: The Structures of Spatial Representation
This is a lively and original survey of a broad and excitingterritory. The scholarship is impeccable, the literature treated isup-to-date and thoroughly addressed, and the authors dealinterestingly with cutting-edge problems at the borderlines ofphilosophy and cognitive science. Barry Smith , State University of New York at Buffalo
