Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Mass terms: mass terms are expressions relating to substances in which the same expression may also be applied to parts of the substance, e.g. water, gold, air. A part of a piece of iron is again iron. In contrast, a part of a human being is not a human being. _____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Peter Gärdenfors on Mass Terms - Dictionary of Arguments
I 133 Mass Terms/Gärdenfors: criterion: if x is an atom in a part-whole structure, which has no parts itself, we call it an atom. Then N is a mass term when the objects to which N refers to do not contain any atoms. Problem: this criterion leads to the fact that mass terms also denote infinitely divisible objects, e.g. "furniture". (See Ojeda, 1993(1), Moltmann, 1998(2), p.79). --- I 134 Solution/Moltmann: e.g. apple as a counted object implies a certain form, whereas apple as a mass term loses this form. GärdenforsVsMoltmann: Problem: how do we explain the concept of a whole then? Solution/Gärdenfors: one could say that we put more emphasis on matter with the mass term. 1. Ojeda, A. (1993). Linguistic individuals. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information. 2. Moltmann, F. (1998). Part structures, integrity, and the mass-count distinction. Synthese, 116, 75-111._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Gä I P. Gärdenfors The Geometry of Meaning Cambridge 2014 |
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> Counter arguments against Gärdenfors
> Counter arguments in relation to Mass Terms
Ed. Martin Schulz, access date 2024-04-28