Some Theses Concerning a Formal Ontology of Wholes

This paper argues that formal mereology requires a formal theory of wholes—termed "Holomereology"—to overcome the structural blindness of Classical Extensional Mereology (CEM). While CEM operates perfectly as the logic of unstructured aggregates (summative wholes), it fails to account for genuine structural composition. Addressing the Special Composition Question, I reject contemporary structural hylomorphism, which treats structure as a proper part. Instead, the paper introduces the concept of Morphological Whole , defined by an overarching architectural matrix ( Morphé ) and a material filling function. It also proposes a comprehensive formal taxonomy, distinguishing between exact and non-exact (porous) boundaries, and analyzable and non-analyzable internal “anatomies.” Crucially, the paper moves beyond Husserl’s horizontal web of dependent and interdependent parts by introducing the concept of “Architectural Foundation,” showing that parts are fundamentally founded on the whole itself, the sole bearer of non-distributive top-level properties. Ultimately, this framework dissolves the rigid phenomenological dichotomy between exact and morphological and relocates CEM as a structural limit case—a degree zero of morphology—within a broader context.