Kathrin Koslicki: The Structure of Objects (2008, OUP)

My commentary on Kathrin Koslicki’s recent book The Structure of Objects (2008, OUP) has just been published in the latest issue of Humana.Mente. It’s a special issue edited by Massimiliano Carrara, Roberto Ciuni, and Giorgio Lando, on ‘Composition, Counterfactuals and Causation’, especially with regard to the work of David Lewis. However, the editors wanted to include something on alternative views (on composition), which is where Koslicki’s book comes in. You can download the entire issue for free from here (3,22MB PDF). The issue features original articles by Andrea Iacona, Ned Hall, Henry Laycock, Massimiliano Carrara & Enrico Martino, Andrea Borghini & Giorgio Lando, and Giuliano Torrengo, as well as a number of commentaries such as my own, and reviews. My commentary is also available here. The whole issue looks great, so make sure to have a look!

Koslicki’s book is very interesting, and I recommend it warmly. She constructs a novel, if rather controversial account of composition inspired by Aristotle. The account is especially interesting for the friends of restricted composition, as it lays out a promising approach that might help to save us from nihilism or unrestricted mereologial composition. Issues concerning vagueness, such as Ted Sider’s notorious vagueness argument (which I have discussed myself in Against the Vagueness Argument), are also discussed, as are the historical views of Plato and Aristotle.