Achille C. Varzi's Books

An Essay in Universal Semantics

By: Achille C. Varzi

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An Essay in Universal Semantics

By: Achille C. Varzi

Like the journal TOPOl, the TOPOl Library is based on the assumption that philosophy is a lively, provocative, delightful activity, which constantly challenges our inherited habits, painstakingly elaborates on how things could be different, in other stories, in counterfactual situations, in alternative possible worlds. Whatever its ideology, whether with the intent of uncovering a truer structure of reality or of shooting our anxiety, of exposing myths or of following them through, the outcome of philosophical activity is always the destabilizing, unsettling generation of doubts, of objections, of criticisms. It follows that this activity is intrinsically a dialogue, that philosophy is first and foremost philosophical discussion, that it requires bringing out conflicting points of view, paying careful, sympathetic attention to their structure, and using this dialectic to articulate one's approach, to make it richer, more thoughtful, more open to variation and play. And it follows that the spirit which one brings to this activity must be one of tolerance, of always suspecting one's own blindness and consequently looking with unbiased eye in every comer, without fearing to pass a (fallible) judgment on what is there but also without failing to show interest and respect.

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Page Count

154

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

9401592438

ISBN 13

9789401592437

Mereology

By: A. J. Cotnoir,Achille C. Varzi

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Mereology

By: A. J. Cotnoir,Achille C. Varzi

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.

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400

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0191065838

ISBN 13

9780191065835

Parts and Places

The Structures of Spatial Representation

By: Roberto Casati,Achille C. Varzi

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Parts and Places

The Structures of Spatial Representation

By: Roberto Casati,Achille C. Varzi

Thinking about space is thinking about spatial things. The table is on the carpet; hence the carpet is under the table. The vase is in the box; hence the box is not in the vase. But what does it mean for an object to be somewhere? How are objects tied to the space they occupy? In this book Roberto Casati and Achille C. Varzi address some of the fundamental issues in the philosophy of spatial representation. Their starting point is an analysis of the interplay betwen mereology (the study of part/whole relations), topology (the study of spatial continuity and comapctness) and the theory of spatial location proper. This leads to a unified framework for spatial representation understood quite broadly as a theory of the representation of spatial entities. The framework is then tested against some classical metaphysical questions such as: Are parts essential to their whole? Is spatial co-location a sufficient criterion of identity? What (if anything) distinguishes material objects from events and other spatial entities? The concluding chapters deal with applications to topics as diverse as the logical analysis of movement and the semantics of maps.

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258

Publisher

MIT Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

026203266X

ISBN 13

9780262032667

Speaking of Events

By: James Higginbotham,Fabio Pianesi,Achille C. Varzi

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Speaking of Events

By: James Higginbotham,Fabio Pianesi,Achille C. Varzi

In recent years the idea that an adequate semantics of ordinary language calls for some theory of events has sparked considerable debate among linguists and philosophers. Speaking of Events offers a vivid and up-to-date indication of this debate, with emphasis precisely on the interplay between linguistic applications and philosophical implications. Each chapter has been written expressly for this volume by leading authors in the field, including Nicholas Asher, Pier Marco Bertinetto, Johannes Brandl, Denis Delfitto, Regine Eckardt, James Higginbotham, Alessandro Lenci, Terence Parsons, Alice ter Meulen, and Henk Verkuyl.

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304

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0195351924

ISBN 13

9780195351927

Insurmountable Simplicities

Thirty-Nine Philosophical Conundrums

By: Roberto Casati,Achille Varzi

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Insurmountable Simplicities

Thirty-Nine Philosophical Conundrums

By: Roberto Casati,Achille Varzi

Why do mirrors seem to invert left and right but not up and down? How do we know whether strawberries taste the same for everyone? Where is it written that we must observe the law, and if it is not written, why should we observe it? What if we could swap brains-or the rest of our bodies? Insurmountable Simplicities is filled with captivating and inventive stories, dialogues, and epistolary exchanges that illuminate the many philosophical conundrums of everyday life. Clear, concise, and intellectually engaging, this internationally acclaimed book covers a range of themes, such as personal identity, causality and responsibility, fortune, the nature of things, the paradoxes of time and space, and the interplay between logic and language, and brilliantly demonstrates that the beauty of philosophy resides in its engagement with the simplicities of the world, insurmountable as they might initially appear.

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142

Publisher

Columbia University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0231137230

ISBN 13

9780231137232

Holes and Other Superficialities

By: Roberto Casati,Achille C. Varzi

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Holes and Other Superficialities

By: Roberto Casati,Achille C. Varzi

This fascinating investigation on the borderlines of metaphysics, everyday geometry, and the theory of perception seeks to answer two basic questions: Do holes really exist? And if so, what are they? Holes are among entities that down-to-earth philosophers would like to expel from their ontological inventory. Casati and Varzi argue in favor of their existence and explore the consequences of this unorthodox approach - odd as these might appear. They examine the ontology of holes, their geometry, their part-whole relations, their identity, their causal role, and the ways we perceive them. Three basic kinds of holes are distinguished: blind hollows, perforating tunnels, and internal cavities. Treating these uniformly as immaterial bodies, Casati and Varzi develop a morphology of holes, focusing on how a hole can be filled. They then look at the main properties of the resulting conceptual framework: Holes, they observe, are parasitic upon the surface of their hosts; holes can move, fuse into one another, split; they can be born, develop, and die. Finally, the authors examine how some morphological features of holes are represented in perception, including the conditions whereby we have the impression that we see, feel, or even hear a hole. Roberto Casati is Assistant in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Neuchatel, in Switzerland. Achille C. Varzi is with the Istituto per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica in Trento, Italy.

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Page Count

253

Publisher

Mit Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0262032112

ISBN 13

9780262032117

Formal Ontology in Information Systems

Proceedings of the Third International Conference (FOIS-2004)

By: Achille C. Varzi,Laure Vieu

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Formal Ontology in Information Systems

Proceedings of the Third International Conference (FOIS-2004)

By: Achille C. Varzi,Laure Vieu

Just as ontology developed over the centuries as part of philosophy, so in recent years ontology has become intertwined with the development of the information sciences. Researchers in such areas as artificial intelligence, formal and computational linguistics, biomedical informatics, conceptual modeling, knowledge engineering and information retrieval have come to realize that a solid foundation for their research calls for serious work in ontology, understood as a general theory of the types of entities and relations that make up their respective domains of inquiry. In all these areas, attention has started to focus on the content of information rather than on just the formats and languages in terms of which information is represented. A clear example of this development is provided by the many initiatives growing up around the project of the Semantic Web. And as the need for integrating research in these different fields arises, so does the realization that strong principles for building well-founded ontologies might provide significant advantages over ad hoc, case-based solutions.The tools of Formal Ontology address precisely these needs, but a real effort is required in order to apply such philosophical tools to the domain of Information Systems. Reciprocally, research in the information science raises specific ontological questions which call for further philosophical investigations.

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Page Count

384

Published Date

ISBN 10

1586034685

ISBN 13

9781586034689

Mereology

By: A. J. Cotnoir,Achille C. Varzi

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Mereology

By: A. J. Cotnoir,Achille C. Varzi

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Page Count

400

Publisher

Oxford University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0191065838

ISBN 13

9780191065835

Book's by Achille C. Varzi

An Essay in Universal Semantics

An Essay in Universal Semantics

Mereology

Mereology

Parts and Places

Parts and Places

Speaking of Events

Speaking of Events

Insurmountable Simplicities

Insurmountable Simplicities

Holes and Other Superficialities

Holes and Other Superficialities

Formal Ontology in Information Systems

Formal Ontology in Information Systems

Mereology

Mereology

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