As yet, no other attempt at a complete reconstruction of any metaphysical system in Chinese philosophy from the mereological perspective has been proposed. Hence, MereoDao is unprecedented in determining this direction in Chinese philosophy research. The project results reflect important characteristics of the project as well as are informative of the expected shape of the complete project.
First, generally, MereoDao results by confirming that the mereological reconstruction can Daoist metaphysics can be conducted in a consistent and comprehensive fashion, show that the practically inexistent analytically oriented approaches to Daoist philosophy are feasible. This entails that Daoist metaphysics can be conceptualized within the paradigm of parthood relations and facilitates a possible interaction, and hopefully, integration of classical Chinese philosophy with contemporary philosophical research done globally.
Second, the mereological analysis of the relationship between dao and you––the two metaphysical regions (undifferentiated and differentiated respectively) that constitute the metaphysical universe in Daoist metaphysics––as well as the parthood status of dao lead to important specific conclusions. It has been ruled that dao is not a region characterizable by mereological nihilism, which assumes entities that cannot become parts of any complex entities. Considering the interrelation of dao and you, this result allows an interpretation that the relation between dao and you can be viewed in terms of parthood relation, most likely part sharing, which is conceptualized as mereological overlap. It has also been found that the nature of parthood relationships in Daoist metaphysics is unlikely to comply with the complete set of axioms that constitute the so-called classical mereology. The inconsistency in this respect is particularly connected with the antisymmetry axiom (entities that are part of each other are identical). This result is likely to direct further work towards constructing non-classical axiomatic systems. To sum up the particular results, they reveal the high plausibility of achieving a comprehensive reconstruction of the Daoist metaphysical system. The reconstruction will be a fine-grained metaphysical account, which will include its own axiomatics.
Third, the mereological conceptualization reveals an extension potential that allows for a more profound understanding of the Daoist metaphysical characteristics. It has been demonstrated that the mereological basis can be referred to the problem of spatial and temporal locations, as well as causation. All these metaphysical aspects contribute to a building a comprehensive conceptualization of Daoist metaphysics.
