Asian Philosophy: An International Journal of the Philosophical Traditions of the East

Fazang's Total Power Mereology: An Interpretive Analytic Reconstruction

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DOI:: 10.1080/09552360903230739

Nicholaos Jones^*

pages 199-211

Available online: 27 Aug 2010

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Abstract

In his Treatise on the Golden Lion, Fazang says that wholes are in each of their parts and that each part of a whole is every other part of the whole. In this paper, I offer an interpretation of these remarks according to which they are not obviously false, and I use this interpretation in order to rigorously reconstruct Fazang's arguments for his claims. On the interpretation I favor, Fazang means that the presence of a whole's part suffices for the presence of the whole and that the presence of any such part is both necessary and sufficient for the presence of any other part. I also argue that this interpretation is more plausible than its extant competitors.