Carving the world at its boundaries : a metaphysical study
According to common-sense beliefs, there is a mind-independent world consisting of many midsized physical objects which can survive qualitative changes and have all their parts at every time they exist. This thesis is a metaphysical study of the boundaries of such things. The metaphysical feature of boundaries is that they are ontologically dependent entities. Following the work carried out by Franz Brentano and Roderick Chisholm, the existence of a boundary depends upon the existence of something else. However, regarding boundaries of physical objects (surfaces), they hold a mutual ontological dependence but asymmetrical: surfaces rigidly depend upon physical objects, whereas physical objects generically depend upon surfaces. Although a surface is a two-dimensional boundary (without thickness) which cannot take up physical space, it can be found in space where the physical object it belongs to is found; physical objects cannot take physical space unless they have a surface at every time they exist. Once the ontological nature of boundaries is explained, the thesis discusses some boundary-puzzles such as the belongingness of a boundary, vagueness/sharpness, and the bona fide/fiat distinction. It is thus discussed
Nunez, Gonzalo
Carving the world at its boundaries : a metaphysical study. According to common-sense beliefs, there is a mind-independent world consisting of many midsized physical objects which can survive qualitative changes and have all their parts at every time they exist. This thesis is a metaphysical study of the boundaries of such things. The metaphysical feature of boundaries is that they are ontologically dependent entities. Following the work carried out by Franz Brentano and Roderick Chisholm, the existence of a boundary depends upon the existence of something else. However, regarding boundaries of physical objects (surfaces), they hold a mutual ontological dependence but asymmetrical: surfaces rigidly depend upon physical objects, whereas physical objects generically depend upon surfaces. Although a surface is a two-dimensional boundary (without thickness) which cannot take up physical space, it can be found in space where the physical object it belongs to is found; physical objects cannot take physical space unless they have a surface at every time they exist. Once the ontological nature of boundaries is explained, the thesis discusses some boundary-puzzles such as the belongingness of a boundary, vagueness/sharpness, and the bona fide/fiat distinction. It is thus discussed
carving world boundary metaphysical study according common_sense belief mind_independent world consist many physical_object survive qualitative change part every time exist metaphysical study boundary thing metaphysical feature boundary ontologically dependent entity following work_carry existence boundary depend_upon existence something else however regard boundary physical_object surface hold mutual ontological dependence asymmetrical surface rigidly depend_upon physical_object whereas physical_object generically depend_upon surface although surface two_dimensional boundary without thickness take physical_space find space physical_object belong find physical_object take physical_space unless surface every time exist ontological nature boundary explain discuss boundary boundary vagueness distinction thus discuss