Questions concerning the composition of material objects and their parts have occupied metaphysicians and philosophers of nature since antiquity: can the decomposition of material objects go on ad infinitum, or must it stop at "atoms"? Do the parts of an object have a more fundamental existence than the object they compose, or does the whole on the contrary have ontological priority over its parts? If a whole is nothing more than its material parts, does this not lead to insoluble paradoxes (the paradox of Theseus' boat, of amputation, etc.)?
In contemporary times, these classic questions have undergone considerable renewal, notably since Lesniewski who, in the wake of Brentano and Husserl, has developed a logic of all-parts relations (or "mereology").
This second colloquium of the Groupe d'Études en Métaphysique, which will bring together the best French-speaking metaphysicians, aims to discuss the most recent advances in the metaphysics of composition, while placing them in their historical perspective.
Coordinated by : Jean-Baptiste Guillon