Quantum Mereotopology |
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Authors: | Barry Smith Berit Brogaard |
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Affiliation: | (1) Department of Philosophy, Center for Cognitive Science and NCGIA, University at Buffalo, NY 14260, USA;(2) Department of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, IL 62026, USA |
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Abstract: | While mereotopology – the theory of boundaries, contact and separation built up on a mereological foundation – has found fruitful applications in the realm of qualitative spatial reasoning, it faces problems when its methods are extended to deal with those varieties of spatial and non-spatial reasoning which involve a factor of granularity. This is because granularity cannot easily be represented within a mereology-based framework. We sketch how this problem can be solved by means of a theory of granular partitions, a theory general enough to comprehend not only the familiar sorts of spatial partitions but also a range of coarse-grained partitions of other, non-spatial sorts. We then show how these same methods can be extended to apply to finite sequences of granular partitions evolving over time, or to what we shall call coarse- and fine-grained histories. |
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Keywords: | mereology granularity ontology consistent histories interpretation of quantum mechanics |
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