Composition and Structure
Abstract
This research aims to develop, within a formal ontological framework, a theory understanding composition as the application of composition operators to specific entities. It draws on K. Fine’s (1991) analysis of constructive ontology and J. Westerhoff’s (2004) taxonomy of operators. Subsequently, it attempts to explain the structure of a complex entity solely by reference to the operator through which it was generated. An entity possesses structure if its constituents are ordered or hierarchically grouped.References
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