Dan Giberman: Big Gunk

Abstract

An entity is composed of mereological ‘gunk’ just in case all its parts have proper parts. It is typically assumed that spatially voluminous entities are gunky only if they are spatially larger than their proper parts; and it is typically assumed that if a world qualitatively like the actual world is gunky then it contains ordinary objects that have proper parts.

This note presents a previously unconsidered model and uses it to argue that these commonly assumed restrictions on gunk are mistaken. The model suggests that it is possible for an entity to be (i) spatially voluminous, (ii) devoid of proper parts smaller than it, and yet (iii) gunky. This sort of entity—here dubbed ‘big gunk’—has interesting consequences both for certain theories of metaphysical priority and for the relationship between science and mereology.