HENRIQUE FORMIGONI MORAIS

We propose to select a controversial principle of contemporary analytic metaphysics and examine it from a formal perspective, exploring its consequences, reasons for and against, and how to best formulate it. A few examples are the unrestricted fusion principle in classical extensional mereology and the recombination principle (often called the "patchwork principle") in modal ontology. In favor of the first principle there is e.g. the vagueness argument and the analysis of composition as identity, both hotly debated in the literature. Regarding the second, it is not clear whether it can be expressed in the intensional language of standard modal logic without recourse to, say, counterpart theory. The idea is, then, to choose one such principle and delve into the discussions happening around it.