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The Ontological Nature of Part-Whole Oscillations The nature of structures comprising part-whole relations belongs to the oldest, most fundamental and still discussed questions of philosophy. Unlike many former approaches, which either give priority to the parts or to the whole of such structures, the present book is an ontological, psychological, and cognitive-linguistic investigation that suggests an alternative to a hierarchical conception of parts and whole with a one-sided dependency relation. This alternative is called ‘part-whole oscillation’ and is developed on a formal as well as empirical basis. Die Beschaffenheit von Strukturen mit Teil-Ganzes-Verhältnissen gehört zu den ältesten, fundamentalsten und stets relevanten Fragen der Philosophie. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Herangehensweisen, die entweder die Teile oder das Ganze priorisieren, beinhaltet das vorliegende Buch eine ontologische, psychologische und kognitiv-linguistische Unter- suchung, die eine Alternative zu einseitigen hierarchischen Abhängigkeitsverhältnissen zwischen Teilen und Ganzen vorschlägt. Diese Alternative wird „part-whole oscillation“ The Ontological Nature of genannt und auf formaler sowie empirischer Grundlage entwickelt. Part-Whole Oscillations Michael W. Stadler wrote his PhD thesis at the Universities of Vienna and Ferrara. He currently teaches at Sichuan University (Jinjiang College). Michael W. Stadler The Ontological Nature of Part-Whole Oscillations Andrea Stadler, In Bestimmung, 2019. Collage on canvas, 36 x 48 cm. ISBN 9783700185925 Stadler Michael W. Made in Europe Dph 523 MICHAEL W. STADLER THE ONTOLOGICAL NATURE OF PART-WHOLE OSCILLATIONS ÖSTERREICHISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN AUSTRIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES PHILOSOPHISCH-HISTORISCHE KLASSE DENKSCHRIFTEN 523. BAND Michael W. Stadler The Ontological Nature of Part-Whole Oscillations An Interdisciplinary Determination Accepted by the publication committee of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Austrian Academy of Sciences: Michael Alram, Bert G. Fragner, Andre Gingrich, Hermann Hunger, Sigrid Jalkotzy-Deger, Renate Pillinger, Franz Rainer, Oliver Jens Schmitt, Danuta Shanzer, Peter Wiesinger, Waldemar Zacharasiewicz Printed with the support of Austrian Science Fund (FWF): PUB 705-Z Open Access: unless otherwise noted, this publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license; see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Cover image © Andrea Stadler. Privat property. Diese Publikation wurde einem anonymen, internationalen Begutachtungsverfahren unterzogen. This publication was subject to international and anonymous peer review. Peer review is an essential part of the Austrian Academy of Sciences Press evaluation process. Before any book can be accepted for publication, it is assessed by international specialists and ultimately must be approved by the Austrian Academy of Sciences Publication Committee. The paper used in this publication is DIN 6738 LDK 24-85 certified and meets the requirements for permanent archiving of written cultural property. Some rights reserved. ISBN 978-3-7001-8592-5 Copyright © Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 2020 Layout & grafics by the author Print: Ferdinand Berger & Söhne, Horn https://epub.oeaw.ac.at/8592-5 https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at Made in Europe Contents Abstract iii Preface and Acknowledgmentsv Introduction with a Fictional Scenario1 In the Midst of Arnheim’s ‘Daily Paradise’ . .1 The Parameters Experience, Reality, Part-Whole and Meaning . .7 The Roadmap . 13 1 A Twofold Method for Ontology: Thinking and Perceiving 19 1.1 The Quaestio Facti and Quaestio Iuris of Meta-Ontology . 19 1.2 The Deductive Method of Conceptual Ontology . 25 1.3 The Inductive Method of Experimental Ontology . 30 1.3.1 Ordinary Judgments and Natural Language . 32 1.3.2 Empirical Experiments . 35 1.4 Recapitulation of the Methodology . 38 2 A Formal Ontology for PWO? Husserl’s 3rd Logical Investigation 40 2.1 Preliminary Remarks on Formal Ontology . 40 2.2 Husserl’s 3rd Logical Investigation . 42 2.2.1 Formal and Material Ontology . 44 2.2.2 Simple and Complex Wholes . 46 2.2.3 Dependent Moments and Independent Pieces . 47 2.2.4 Relative and Absolute (In)Dependency . 50 2.2.5 Founded and Founding I: Towards a Flat Ontology of Pieces . 52 2.2.6 Founded and Founding II: Towards a Vertical Ontology of Moments . 55 2.2.7 Continuity and Discontinuity: The Possibility of pwo ........... 61 2.3 Formal-Ontological Absence Yet Perceptual Presence . 67 3 Two Alternative Lines of Argumentation 73 3.1 Material Composition and Mereology . 73 3.1.1 Part-Whole Identity When Parts Undergo Change . 78 3.1.2 Part-Whole Identity as Composition . 79 3.1.3 Part-Whole Identity in Mereology . 81 3.2 Husserl’s 4th Logical Investigation . 84 3.2.1 Une Grammaire Générale et Raisonnée ................... 85 3.2.2 Towards Cognitive Linguistics . 89 4 Cognitive Linguistics I: Meaning and Conceptual Metaphor 95 4.1 The Inchoateness of Linguistic Meaning and A Priori Reasoning . 95 4.1.1 Propositional Meaning, Perceptual Meaning and Situational Meaning . 98 4.1.2 No Meaningfulness Without a Mind/Body/World Unity . 106 i Contents 4.2 On Conceptual Metaphors . 112 4.2.1 Primary Conceptual Metaphors . 113 4.2.2 Complex Conceptual Metaphors . 120 4.2.3 Across Domains: The Act of Metaphorical Mapping . 123 4.2.4 Ontological Conceptual Metaphors: Is pwo One of Them? . 130 5 Cognitive Linguistics II: Image Schemata and Conceptual Metonymy 139 5.1 On Image Schemata . 139 5.1.1 What are Image Schemata? Some Questions and Answers . 139 5.1.2 A Delineation of the part-whole Image Schema . 151 5.2 On Conceptual Metonymy . 165 5.2.1 Conceptual Metonymy as a Stand-For Relation . 168 5.2.2 Conceptual Metonymy as Part-Whole Intra-Domain Mapping . 170 5.2.3 Conceptual Metonymy as Co-Activation of Source and Target . 176 5.2.4 From Metonymy to Synecdoche and Back Again . 179 5.3 The Identification of pwo as Conceptual Metonymy . 184 6 Gestalt Theory I: Part-Whole Dependency 192 6.1 Why and How to Approach Gestalt Theory . 192 6.2 One-Sided Dependency I: Parts Found the Whole . 200 6.2.1 Ehrenfels and Gestalt Qualities . 201 6.2.2 Ontological Expansion of Gestalt Qualities . 203 6.2.3 Vertical Ontology of Higher Order Gestalt Qualities . 204 6.2.4 Good, Bad and No Infinity of Gestalt Qualities . 206 6.3 One-Sided Dependency II: The Whole Founds the Parts . 209 6.3.1 From Additional Gestalt Qualities to Immediate Gestalt Wholes . 209 6.3.2 Primacy of the Whole in Perceptual Grouping . 215 6.3.3 The Meta-Principle of Prägnanz ....................... 219 6.4 From One-Sided to Two-Sided Part-Whole Dependency . 223 7 Gestalt Theory II: Part-Whole Interdependency 229 7.1 Perceptual Meaning: B. Pinna . 229 7.1.1 Meaning as Happening of the Parts to the Whole . 230 7.1.2 Many Become Few, But Not One . 235 7.2 Splitting and Merging: J. Koenderink . 238 7.2.1 Visual Awareness and the Multiple-World Hypothesis . 239 7.2.2 Complicacies in Pinpointing the Acts of Splitting and Merging . 244 7.3 Part-Whole Emergence . 248 7.3.1 Ontological Emergence, Hierarchies and Downward Causation . 250 7.3.2 Emergence and Demergence . 258 7.4 Multistability and Reversing Hierarchies . 266 7.4.1 Ambiguous Figure-Ground Phenomena . 266 7.4.2 Rethinking Multistability: Towards an Interactive Realism . 273 Conclusion: The Determination of PWO’s Ontological Nature 288 Table of Figures 304 Bibliography 305 ii Abstract English The nature of structures comprising part-whole relations belongs to the oldest, most funda- mental and still discussed questions of philosophical ontology. Unlike many former approaches, which either give priority to the parts or to the whole of such structures, the present project is an ontological investigation that suggests an alternative to a hierarchical conception of parts and whole with a one-sided dependence relationship. In considering the dynamic ‘in-between’ or interplay of parts and whole, I develop and determine an ontological category called ‘part- whole oscillations’ (pwo). This development combines two crucial methodical approaches: a top-down, a priori method of formal ontology and a bottom-up recognition of empirical phe- nomena. By elaborating on E. Husserl’s 3rd Logical Investigation, I show that the first method is only of restricted usefulness for the determination of pwo’s ontological nature, because it leads to formal inconsistencies. It is only in applying the second method that we can get a clearer picture of what the ontological category of pwo amounts to. This ‘empirical’ part of this project is carried out by interpreting Cognitive Linguistic’s notions of ‘conceptual metaphor’ and conceptual metonymy. It is also carried out by critically analyzing the notion of ‘Gestalt’ as it is developed in classical and contemporary research of Gestalt theory. Through determining this category in these ways and through arguing in favor of empirical perception for the sake of ontological insights, I demonstrate that both an exclusively analytical approach towards a structure’s parts and an exclusively synthetical approach towards a structure’s whole is insuf- ficient. This is the case in particular regarding perceptually meaningful part-whole structures, and should therefore be updated with a bidirectional and more experience-based conception of interdependent parts and wholes. Deutsch Die Beschaffenheit von Strukturen mit Verhältnissen zwischen Ganzen und Teilen gehört zu den ältesten, grundlegendsten und immer noch besprochenen Fragen der philosophischen On- tologie. Im Gegensatz zu vielen früheren Ansätzen, welche entweder die Teile oder das Ganze solcher Strukturen priorisieren, stellt das vorliegende Projekt eine ontologische Untersuchung dar, die eine Alternative zu einem hierarchischen Verständnis von Teilen und Ganzen mit einseit- igem Abhängigkeitsverhältnis anbietet. Unter Berücksichtigung des dynamischen ‘Dazwischen’ beziehungsweise Wechselspiels von Teilen und Ganzen, entwickle und bestimme ich eine ontolo- gische Kategorie namens ‘Teil-Ganze-Oszillationen’ (kurz pwo: part-whole oscillations). Diese Entwicklung verbindet zwei wichtige methodische Ansätze: die apriorische top-down Methode formaler Ontologie und die bottom-up Wahrnehmung empirischer Phänomene. Anhand der iii Abstract dritten von E.
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