Paul Hovda

Paul Hovda is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Reed College, specializing in metaphysics and philosophical logic. His research develops formally rigorous theories for metaphysical topics, particularly mereology - the study of part-whole relationships. Current work examines parthood-like relations, composition as identity, and logical foundations of vague predicates.

Key research areas:

• Classical mereology and its alternatives
• Composition-as-identity doctrines
• Metaphysical vagueness
• Formal theories of parthood
• Logical constraints on metaphysical theories

His publications analyze closure principles for part-like relations, logical constraints on composition theories, and integrate mereology with tensed and modal contexts. Additional work addresses weak emergence concepts and the semantic foundations of vague language.