[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# R6. Anything can be an identity, and any identity can be taken as a whole

On Systems

Are parts limited to separable objects, a fixed count, or a terminating lowest level?

## Short answer

No. Any identity can be taken as a whole, and any whole takes parts. Because any part is also an identity, any part may itself be taken as a whole recursively. Parts need not be separable, independently existing, actualized in one fixed count, or terminal.

## Complete explanation

Parts may be physical objects, but they may also be phases, stages, events, relationships, meanings, coordinate aspects, possibilities, process segments, or other forms of organization. The calculus does not prescribe what kind of content may occupy the identity, whole, or part roles. Once an identity is taken as a whole, whatever constitutes its organization occupies part roles. Because each part is itself an identity, it may be taken as a whole with further parts, recursively. The calculus therefore does not require a smallest part or a fixed number of parts. Indeterminate particle number, gunk, nonseparable quantum parts, and Whiteheadian occasions do not eliminate part–whole structure; they challenge only a narrower object-based concept of part.

## Why the apparent counterexample arises

The apparent difficulty arises because “part” is assumed to mean a detachable, independently existing physical object with a fixed count.

## Cases this settles

- [Superposition of particle number](https://dsrpevidence.org/case/3)

- [Whitehead's occasions as partless](https://dsrpevidence.org/case/12)

- [Coordinate parts of an occasion](https://dsrpevidence.org/case/13)

- [Gunk: matter with no smallest parts](https://dsrpevidence.org/case/21)

[All cases and resolutions](https://dsrpevidence.org/counterexamples)