The 4th SCOR Online Seminar on December 11
alex.shkotin
FYI.
The SCOR occasionally organizes an online seminar. It is a one-hour public online seminar by an ontology researcher/practitioner in Switzerland (and beyond).
The 4th SCOR online seminar will take place on December 11, 2025. We are looking forward to your participation.
Starting time and date: Thursday, December 11, 2025
16:00 CET / 10:00 EST / 15:00 UTC
Structure: A one-hour public seminar, including a brief Q&A session
Location: Online (via Webex): https://unine.webex.com/unine/j.php?MTID=m176195c2a1a6b95d020b946d06360a1b
Speaker and title:
Achille C. Varzi (Columbia University)
"Open Questions in Mereotopology"
Abstract
This talk will address some open questions in the field of mereotopology, broadly understood as the study of theories that integrate mereological notions, such as parthood or overlap, with topological notions, such as boundary or connection. I will focus especially on questions arising from the idea that a mereotopological framework can ground the fundamental distinction between things that are “all of a piece”, such as a vase or a whistle, and scattered entities composed of discontinuous parts, such as a broken vase or a series of thunderclaps. Particularly, I will argue that (i) such a framework is necessary to ground the distinction, but (ii) it is not sufficient, even within strong axiomatic settings. I will close by outlining what additional structural or conceptual resources may be required.
Short bio
Achille Varzi is John Dewey Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, New York, where he has been teaching since 1995. He has published widely on logic, analytic metaphysics, and formal ontology. His most recent book, Mereology (with Aaron J. Cotnoir), appeared with Oxford University Press in 2021.
Reminder: Register for SCAO 2026
Don't forget to register for the First Swiss Conference on Applied Ontology (SCAO 2026) — the inaugural event in a new annual series and the flagship conference of SCOR. (There is no Call for Papers (CFP) for SCAO 2026. A CFP is planned for SCAO 2027.)
Participation is free of charge, but registration is mandatory. If you’d like to be included in shared meals with invited speakers, please register by January 21, 2026 (CET).
Date: February 5-6, 2026 (CET) Location: The Faculty of Arts and Humanities, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland Event webpage: https://swissonto.ch/scao2026/ Registration form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScXv80MD5cyAVQwi2pGKXYdGBRg4KvcMX9Cg5k03FtthlCrug/viewform?usp=header
Contact: For any inquiries, kindly reference “SCAO 2026” in your message via the SCOR contact form: https://swissonto.ch/contact-us/