# Behavioral Mereology: A Modal Logic for Passing Constraints

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2101.10490 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.10490/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 26 Jan 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Hybrid Life: Integrating Biological, Artificial, and Cognitive Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.00285/) (2022)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Mereology is the study of parts and the relationships that hold between them. We introduce a behavioral approach to mereology, in which systems and their parts are known only by the types of behavior they can exhibit. Our discussion is formally topos-theoretic, and agnostic to the topos, providing maximal generality; however, by using only its internal logic we can hide the details and readers may assume a completely elementary set-theoretic discussion. We consider the relationship between various parts of a whole in terms of how behavioral constraints are passed between them, and give an inter-modal logic that generalizes the usual alethic modalities in the setting of symmetric accessibility.