Mereology

In philosophy the discussion of mereology concerns the relation of wholes and their parts. A common example is a 'book' and its 'pages'. Another common example used to illustrate the potential silliness of combining things is 'Clinton's nose and the Eiffel tower'. Among the issues raised by these examples is finding a cogent rule for separating ridiculous from sensible combinations, and finding in what sense such combinations actually exist, and in what sense they simply are constructions of language and matters of usage.