Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1472583671
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (725 download)

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Book Synopsis Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction by : Giorgio Lando

Download or read book Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction written by Giorgio Lando and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-29 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parthood and composition are everywhere. The leg of a table is part of the table, the word "Christmas" is part of the sentence "I wish you a merry Christmas", the 13th century is part of the Middle Ages. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg compose Benelux, the body of a deer is composed of a huge number of cells, the Middle Ages are composed of the Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, and Late Middle Ages. Is there really a general theory covering every instance of parthood and composition? Is classical mereology this general theory? Are its seemingly counter-intuitive features serious defects? Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction addresses the multifaceted and lively philosophical debates surrounding these questions, and defends the idea that classical mereology is indeed the general and exhaustive theory of parthood and composition in the domain of concrete entities. Several examples of parthood and composition, involving entities of different kinds, are scrutinised in depth. Incidentally, mereology is shown to interact in a surprising way with metaontology. Presenting a well-organized and comprehensive discussion of parthood and related notions, Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction contributes to a better understanding of a subject central to contemporary metaphysics.

Mereology

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0198749007
Total Pages : 422 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (987 download)

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Book Synopsis Mereology by : A. J. Cotnoir

Download or read book Mereology written by A. J. Cotnoir and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-08 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is a whole something more than the sum of its parts? Are there things composed of the same parts? If you divide an object into parts, and divide those parts into smaller parts, will this process ever come to an end? Can something lose parts or gain new ones without ceasing to be the thing it is? Does any multitude of things (including disparate things such as you, this book, and the tail of a cat) compose a whole of some sort? Questions such as these have occupied us for at least as long as philosophy has existed. They define the field that has come to be known as mereology-the study of all relations of part to whole and of part to part within a whole-and have deep and far-reaching ramifications in metaphysics as well as in logic, the foundations of mathematics, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of science, and beyond. In Mereology, A. J. Cotnoir and Achille C. Varzi have compiled decades of advanced research into a comprehensive, up-to-date, and formally rigorous picture. The early chapters cover the more classical aspects of mereology; the rest of the book deals with variants and extensions. Whether you are an established professional philosopher, an interested student, or a newcomer, inside you will find all the tools you need to join this ever-evolving field of inquiry and theorize about all things mereological.

Mereology and Location

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199593825
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (995 download)

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Book Synopsis Mereology and Location by : Shieva Kleinschmidt

Download or read book Mereology and Location written by Shieva Kleinschmidt and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A team of leading philosophers presents original work on theories of parthood and of location. Topics covered include how we ought to axiomatise our mereology, whether we can reduce mereological relations to identity or to locative relations, whether Mereological Essentialism is true, different ways in which entities persist through space, time, spacetime, and even hypertime, conflicting intuitions we have about space, and what mereology and propositions can tell us about one another. The breadth and accessibility of the papers make this volume an excellent introduction for those not yet working on these topics. Further, the papers contain important contributions to these central areas of metaphysics, and thus are essential reading for anyone working in the field.

Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction

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Author :
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN 13 : 147258368X
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (725 download)

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Book Synopsis Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction by : Giorgio Lando

Download or read book Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction written by Giorgio Lando and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-06-29 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Parthood and composition are everywhere. The leg of a table is part of the table, the word "Christmas" is part of the sentence "I wish you a merry Christmas", the 13th century is part of the Middle Ages. The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg compose Benelux, the body of a deer is composed of a huge number of cells, the Middle Ages are composed of the Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, and Late Middle Ages. Is there really a general theory covering every instance of parthood and composition? Is classical mereology this general theory? Are its seemingly counter-intuitive features serious defects? Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction addresses the multifaceted and lively philosophical debates surrounding these questions, and defends the idea that classical mereology is indeed the general and exhaustive theory of parthood and composition in the domain of concrete entities. Several examples of parthood and composition, involving entities of different kinds, are scrutinised in depth. Incidentally, mereology is shown to interact in a surprising way with metaontology. Presenting a well-organized and comprehensive discussion of parthood and related notions, Mereology: A Philosophical Introduction contributes to a better understanding of a subject central to contemporary metaphysics.

Mereology and the Sciences

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Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319053566
Total Pages : 389 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Mereology and the Sciences by : Claudio Calosi

Download or read book Mereology and the Sciences written by Claudio Calosi and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-06-02 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is the first systematic and thorough attempt to investigate the relation and the possible applications of mereology to contemporary science. It gathers contributions from leading scholars in the field and covers a wide range of scientific theories and practices such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, computer science and engineering. Throughout the volume, a variety of foundational issues are investigated both from the formal and the empirical point of view. The first section looks at the topic as it applies to physics. The section addresses questions of persistence and composition within quantum and relativistic physics and concludes by scrutinizing the possibility to capture continuity of motion as described by our best physical theories within gunky space times. The second part tackles mathematics and shows how to provide a foundation for point-free geometry of space switching to fuzzy-logic. The relation between mereological sums and set-theoretic suprema is investigated and issues about different mereological perspectives such as classical and natural Mereology are thoroughly discussed. The third section in the volume looks at natural science. Several questions from biology, medicine and chemistry are investigated. From the perspective of biology, there is an attempt to provide axioms for inferring statements about part hood between two biological entities from statements about their spatial relation. From the perspective of chemistry, it is argued that classical mereological frameworks are not adequate to capture the practices of chemistry in that they consider neither temporal nor modal parameters. The final part introduces computer science and engineering. A new formal mereological framework in which an indeterminate relation of part hood is taken as a primitive notion is constructed and then applied to a wide variety of disciplines from robotics to knowledge engineering. A formal framework for discrete mereotopology and its applications is developed and finally, the importance of mereology for the relatively new science of domain engineering is also discussed.

Substance and the Fundamentality of the Familiar

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Author :
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1351660047
Total Pages : 447 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis Substance and the Fundamentality of the Familiar by : Ross D. Inman

Download or read book Substance and the Fundamentality of the Familiar written by Ross D. Inman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-12-14 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Substance and the Fundamentality of the Familiar explicates and defends a novel neo-Aristotelian account of the structure of material objects. While there have been numerous treatments of properties, laws, causation, and modality in the neo-Aristotelian metaphysics literature, this book is one of the first full-length treatments of wholes and their parts. Another aim of the book is to further develop the newly revived area concerning the question of fundamental mereology, the question of whether wholes are metaphysically prior to their parts or vice versa. Inman develops a fundamental mereology with a grounding-based conception of the structure and unity of substances at its core, what he calls substantial priority, one that distinctively allows for the fundamentality of ordinary, medium-sized composite objects. He offers both empirical and philosophical considerations against the view that the parts of every composite object are metaphysically prior, in particular the view that ascribes ontological pride of place to the smallest microphysical parts of composite objects, which currently dominates debates in metaphysics, philosophy of science, and philosophy of mind. Ultimately, he demonstrates that substantial priority is well-motivated in virtue of its offering a unified solution to a host of metaphysical problems involving material objects.

Parts

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press on Demand
ISBN 13 : 9780199241460
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (414 download)

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Book Synopsis Parts by : Peter Simons

Download or read book Parts written by Peter Simons and published by Oxford University Press on Demand. This book was released on 1987 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship of part to whole is one of the most fundamental there is, yet until now there has been no full-length study of this concept. This book shows that mereology, the formal theory of part and whole, is essential to ontology. Peter Simons surveys and criticizes previous theories, especially the standard extensional view, and proposes a more adequate account which encompasses both temporal and modal considerations in detail. This has far-reaching consequences for our understanding of such classical philosophical concepts as identity, individual, class, substance and accident, matter, form, essence, dependence, and integral whole. It also enables the author to offer new solutions to long-standing problems surrounding these concepts, such as the Ship of Theseus Problem and the issue of mereological essentialism. The author shows by his use of formal techniques that classical philosophical problems are amenable to rigorous treatment, and the book represents a synthesis of issues and methods from the analytical tradition and from the older continental realist tradition of Brentano and the early Husserl.

Composition as Identity

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0199669619
Total Pages : 271 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (996 download)

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Book Synopsis Composition as Identity by : A. J. Cotnoir

Download or read book Composition as Identity written by A. J. Cotnoir and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of essays is the first of its kind to focus on the relationship between composition and identity. Twelve original articles--written by internationally renowned scholars and rising stars in the field--argue for and against the controversial doctrine that composition is identity.--Provided by publisher.

Mereology and Location

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Author :
Publisher : OUP Oxford
ISBN 13 : 0191662879
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (916 download)

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Book Synopsis Mereology and Location by : Shieva Kleinschmidt

Download or read book Mereology and Location written by Shieva Kleinschmidt and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-01-09 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A team of leading philosophers presents original work on theories of parthood and of location. Topics covered include how we ought to axiomatise our mereology, whether we can reduce mereological relations to identity or to locative relations, whether Mereological Essentialism is true, different ways in which entities persist through space, time, spacetime, and even hypertime, conflicting intuitions we have about space, and what mereology and propositions can tell us about one another. The breadth and accessibility of the papers make this volume an excellent introduction for those not yet working on these topics. Further, the papers contain important contributions to these central areas of metaphysics, and thus are essential reading for anyone working in the field.

Medieval Mereology

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Author :
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN 13 : 9027277990
Total Pages : 637 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (272 download)

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Book Synopsis Medieval Mereology by : Desmond Paul Henry

Download or read book Medieval Mereology written by Desmond Paul Henry and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1991-01-01 with total page 637 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mereology is the theory which deals with parts and wholes in the concrete sense, and this study follows its varied fortunes during the Middle Ages. Preliminary indications as to its metaphysical situation are followed by a brief sketch of Boethius' contribution. Peter Abelard, Gilbert of Poitiers, Clarembald of Arras, and Joscelin of Soissons are among the twelfth-century authors examined. The effect of the subsequent recovery of Aristotle's Metaphysica on Mereology is typified by sketches of the many and varied uses made of the latter by Aquinas. A brief sample of Buridanian treatment is followed by an account of those applications made under the umbrella of thirteenth-century comment on Aristotle's De Sophisticis Elenchis. The curiously original theories of Wyclif are brought to light, as also also samples from Walter Bruleigh, Nicholas of Paris, William of Ockham, and Paul of Venice. Readers interested in such subjects as logic, metaphysics, philosophy, theology, linguistics, pyschology, and their history, will find the work relevant to their studies. No logical symbolism is used in the main body of the book, but some contemporary background is appended so that those who wish to do so may follow it up.

The Philosophy Major’s Introduction to Philosophy

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000163210
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis The Philosophy Major’s Introduction to Philosophy by : Ken Akiba

Download or read book The Philosophy Major’s Introduction to Philosophy written by Ken Akiba and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-25 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many philosophy majors are shocked by the gap between the relative ease of lower-level philosophy courses and the difficulty of upper-division courses. This book serves as a necessary bridge to upper-level study in philosophy by offering rigorous but concise and accessible accounts of basic concepts and distinctions that are used throughout the discipline. It serves as a valuable advanced introduction to any undergraduate who is moving into upper-level courses in philosophy. While lower-level introductions to philosophy usually deal with popular topics accessible to the general student (such as contemporary moral issues, free will, and personal identity) in a piecemeal fashion, The Philosophy Major’s Introduction to Philosophy offers coverage of important general philosophical concepts, tools, and devices that may be used for a long time to come in various philosophical areas. The volume is helpfully divided between a focus on the relation between language and the world in the first three chapters and coverage of mental content in the final two chapters, but builds a coherent narrative from start to finish. It also provides ample study questions and helpful signposts throughout, making it a must-have for any student attempting to engage fully with the problems and arguments in philosophy. Key Features Integrates topics from various areas of philosophy, such as philosophy of language, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and philosophical logic Provides descriptions of logico-mathematical tools necessary for philosophical studies, such as propositional logic, predicate logic, modal logic, set theory, mereology, and mathematical functions Makes connections with modern philosophy, including discussions of Descartes’s skepticism and dualism, Locke’s theory of personal identity, Hume’s theory of causation, and Kant’s synthetic a priori Includes well-known entertaining puzzles and thought experiments such as the Ship of Theseus, the Statue and the Clay, a Brain in a Vat, and Twin Earth Lists helpful Exercise Questions and Discussion Questions at the end of each chapter and answers selected questions at the back of the book

An Introduction to Ontology

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Author :
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0745665470
Total Pages : 230 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (456 download)

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Book Synopsis An Introduction to Ontology by : Nikk Effingham

Download or read book An Introduction to Ontology written by Nikk Effingham and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-08-26 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this engaging and wide-ranging new book, Nikk Effingham provides an introduction to contemporary ontology - the study of what exists - and its importance for philosophy today. He covers the key topics in the field, from the ontology of holes, numbers and possible worlds, to space, time and the ontology of material objects - for instance, whether there are composite objects such as tables, chairs or even you and me. While starting from the basics, every chapter is up-to-date with the most recent developments in the field, introducing both longstanding theories and cutting-edge advances. As well as discussing the latest issues in ontology, Effingham also helpfully deals in-depth with different methodological principles (including theory choice, Quinean ontological commitment and Meinongianism) and introduces them alongside an example ontological theory that puts them into practice. This accessible and comprehensive introduction will be essential reading for upper-level undergraduate and post-graduate students, as well as any reader interested in the present state of the subject.

Substance

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Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134831358
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (348 download)

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Book Synopsis Substance by : Joshua Hoffman

Download or read book Substance written by Joshua Hoffman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-02-07 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Substance has been a leading idea in the history of Western philosophy. Joshua Hoffman and Gary S. Rosenkrantz explain the nature and existence of individual substances, including both living things and inanimate objects. Specifically written for students new to this important and often complex subject, Substance provides both the historical and contemporary overview of the debate. Great Philosophers of the past, such as Aristotle, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Locke, and Berkeley were profoundly interested in the concept of substance. And, the authors argue, a belief in the existence of substances is an integral part of our everyday world view. But what constitutes substance? Was Aristotle right to suggest that artefacts like tables and ships don't really exist? Substance: Its Nature and Existence is one of the first non-technical, accessible guides to this central problem and will be of great use to students of metaphysics and philosophy.

Diagrammatology

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Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1402056524
Total Pages : 514 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis Diagrammatology by : Frederik Stjernfelt

Download or read book Diagrammatology written by Frederik Stjernfelt and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-06-20 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Diagrammatology investigates the role of diagrams for thought and knowledge. Based on the general doctrine of diagrams in Charles Peirce's mature work, Diagrammatology claims diagrams to constitute a centerpiece of epistemology. This book reflects Peirce's work on the issue in Husserl's contemporaneous doctrine of categorical intuition and charts the many unnoticed similarities between Peircean semiotics and early Husserlian phenomenology.

Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation

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Author :
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 1317271440
Total Pages : 334 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (172 download)

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Book Synopsis Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation by : Michele Paolini Paoletti

Download or read book Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation written by Michele Paolini Paoletti and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-02-17 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Downward causation plays a fundamental role in many theories of metaphysics and philosophy of mind. It is strictly connected with many topics in philosophy, including but not limited to: emergence, mental causation, the nature of causation, the nature of causal powers and dispositions, laws of nature, and the possibility of ontological and epistemic reductions. Philosophical and Scientific Perspectives on Downward Causation brings together experts from different fields—including William Bechtel, Stewart Clark and Tom Lancaster, Carl Gillett, John Heil, Robin F. Hendry, Max Kistler, Stephen Mumford and Rani Lill Anjum —who delve into classic and unexplored lines of philosophical inquiry related to downward causation. It critically assesses the possibility of downward causation given different ontological assumptions and explores the connection between downward causation and the metaphysics of causation and dispositions. Finally, it presents different cases of downward causation in empirical fields such as physics, chemistry, biology and the neurosciences. This volume is both a useful introduction and a collection of original contributions on this fascinating and hotly debated philosophical topic.

Philosophical Introduction to Set Theory

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Author :
Publisher : Courier Dover Publications
ISBN 13 : 0486797147
Total Pages : 196 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (867 download)

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Book Synopsis Philosophical Introduction to Set Theory by : Stephen Pollard

Download or read book Philosophical Introduction to Set Theory written by Stephen Pollard and published by Courier Dover Publications. This book was released on 2015-07-15 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique approach maintains that set theory is the primary mechanism for ideological and theoretical unification in modern mathematics, and its technically informed discussion covers a variety of philosophical issues. 1990 edition.

The Metaphysics of the Material World

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Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190070226
Total Pages : 313 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis The Metaphysics of the Material World by : Tad M. Schmaltz

Download or read book The Metaphysics of the Material World written by Tad M. Schmaltz and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2019 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Metaphysics of the Material World, Tad M. Schmaltz traces a particular development of the metaphysics of the material world in early modern thought. The route Schmaltz follows derives from a critique of Spinoza in the work of Pierre Bayle. Bayle charged in particular that Spinoza's monistic conception of the material world founders on the account of extension and its "modes" and parts that he inherited from Descartes, and that Descartes in turn inherited from late scholasticism, and ultimately from Aristotle. After an initial discussion of Bayle's critique of Spinoza and its relation to Aristotle's distinction between substance and accident, this study starts with the original re-conceptualization of Aristotle's metaphysics of the material world that we find in the work of the early modern scholastic Su�rez. What receives particular attention is Su�rez's introduction of the "modal distinction" and his distinctive account of the Aristotelian accident of "continuous quantity." This examination of Su�rez is followed by a treatment of the connections of his particular version of the scholastic conception of the material world to the very different conception that Descartes offered. Especially important is Descartes's view of the relation of extended substance both to its modes and to the parts that compose it. Finally, there is a consideration of what these developments in Su�rez and Descartes have to teach us about Spinoza's monistic conception of the material world. Of special concern here is to draw on this historical narrative to provide a re-assessment of Bayle's critique of Spinoza.