What question did this study set out to answer?

This paper aims to discuss and resolve the metaphysical and epistemological problems associated with absences.

February 5, 2026Open Access

How Not to See Pierre

GPGraham PriestThe Graduate Center, CUNY

Key Points

This paper aims to discuss and resolve the metaphysical and epistemological problems associated with absences.
Introduces mereology as a framework for understanding absences.
Defines absence as the mereological complement of an object.
Analyzes the implications of this definition on existing metaphysical and epistemological issues.
Addresses potential objections to the mereological account.
Establishes that absences can be understood as complements within the mereological framework.
Shows that this perspective can resolve certain long-standing philosophical problems around absence.
Offers a structured way to discuss the significance of absence in philosophy.

Abstract

Abstract An absence is a puzzling object. In some sense, something which is absent is phenomenologically present to us. This paper discusses the metaphysical and epistemological problems of absences. After a short primer of mereology, it then presents a mereological account of absences. The absence of an object is its mereological complement. The paper then explains how this account resolves the metaphysical and epistemological problems. It ends by addressing some objections to the account.

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