Yoes on Non-Atomic Systems of Individuals
Rolf A. Eberle · Noûs · 1968
He undertook a partial analysis of this principle by employing the following notions: A generating relation (or, a relation between proper parts and wholes) is a strict partial ordering which meets additional unspecified conditions. A system is uniquely determined by a generating relation and its field (whose members are said to be in the system). The R-minimal elements with respect to a generating relation R (that is, those elements of the system to which nothing bears the relation R), are called atoms of the system; and an atom which bears either R or identity to an object y is said to be an atom of y. A system, with respect to R, is atomic if for every x in the system there exists an atom y of the system such that y bears R or identity to x; otherwise, the system is non-atomic. A system is atomless if it comprises no atoms. Given any atomic system and its generating relation R, Good-