Reduction and Elimination in Philosophy and the Sciences

constitute the chess society are members both of those
foundations (each of his or her own, that is) and of the
society.
This discussion reveals that it can be confusing to
say that the constitution relation is transitive. Even in case
of the chess society, individual human beings constitute
the foundations, but the chess society is constituted by an
aggregate of foundations. So it is not the case that one
thing constitutes another one that in turn constitutes some
further object. To be sure, there are such cases. Perhaps a
human body can constitute a person, which in turn can
constitute a limited liability company. However, in many, if
not most, cases of constitution, the constituter is an
aggregate rather than a constituted object.
146
The Constitution of Institutions — Frank Hindriks
Literature
Baker, L.R. 1997 ‘Why Constitution is Not Identity’, Journal of Philosophy
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Baker, L.R. 2007 The Metaphysics of Everyday Life. Cambridge,
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Hindriks, F. 2008, forthcoming ‘The Status Account of Corporate
Agents’, in: K. Schulte-Ostermann, N. Psarros, and B. Schmid
(eds.), Concepts of Sharedness – New Essays on Collective Intentionality,
Frankfurt: Ontos Verlag.
Lewis, D. 1986 On the Plurality of Worlds. Oxford, Basil Blackwell.
Ruben, D.H. 1985 The Metaphysics of the Social World, London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Uzquiano, G. 2004 ‘The Supreme Court and the Supreme Court
Justices: A Metaphysical Puzzle’, Nous 38, 135-53.