Discrete Mereotopology

Antony Galton

In Claudio Calosi and Pierluigi Graziani (eds.), Mereology and the Sciences (Parts and Wholes in the Contemporary Scientific Context), Springer, 2014, pages 293-321.
ISBN 978-3-319-05355-4

Abstract (from The Philosopher's Index)

This chapter provides a general introduction to mereotopology, the formal study of the spatial relations of parthood and connection, with particular emphasis on the form taken by mereotopological phenomena when the underlying space is discrete rather than continuous. The chapter introduces "quasi-topological" operators which take the place, in discrete mereotopology, of the topological interior and closure operators, and discusses how these can be used to characterise the notions of size and distance in discrete space. Finally, comparisons are made with both mathematical morphology and digital topology, and an application to histological image analysis is presented.

Full text (preprint)

Antony Galton

Last modified: Thu Jul 10 14:55:42 BST 2014