The Bound-State Answer to the Special Composition Question

The paper provides the first thorough assessment of a physics-based answer, the so called Bound State Answer, (BSA) to the Special Composition Question (SCQ). According to the BSA some material objects compose something iff they are in a common bound state. The reasons to endorse such an answer, in particular motivations coming from empirical adequacy and conservativeness, precision, simplicity and parsimony are critically addressed. I then go on to compare the BSA to other moderate answers to the SCQ and consider whether objections raised against such answers can be raised against the BSA as well. I conclude with a plea for mereological pluralism, in the light of the many different wholes that physics seem to provide.