The Simplicity of Everything (PhD Thesis)

Abstract......Page 3
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Preface......Page 9
I Composition......Page 12
Folk mereology and its justification......Page 13
Fictionalism about folk mereology......Page 22
Pragmatic and semantic versions of fictionalism......Page 25
Why believe folk mereology?......Page 34
An argument from counterfactuals......Page 52
An argument by analogy......Page 61
Objections......Page 68
Why there are no composite things......Page 75
Is the claim that there are composite things inconsistent?......Page 79
People......Page 84
A Kripkean challenge......Page 88
A metalinguistic version of the counterfactual theory......Page 97
The principles of the mereological fiction......Page 100
Necessity according to the fiction......Page 114
II Complex Attributes......Page 122
The question......Page 123
Sharpening the question......Page 127
The temptation to think that Nihilism is inconsistent......Page 132
Making up one's mind......Page 137
Appendices......Page 143
Epiphenomenal properties......Page 163
Epiphenomenal properties at a simple world......Page 166
Metaphysical and nomological redundancy......Page 169
Other simple worlds......Page 171
Epiphenomenal properties at more complicated worlds......Page 175
Higher-order attributes......Page 181
The advantages of unreflectiveness......Page 187
The principles of the fiction of complex attributes......Page 193
Fictions within fictions......Page 218
Bibliography......Page 227