  There are two kinds of theories that imply that only one of the sets of water droplets is such that there exists a fusion of its atoms. First, there are principled restrictions on composition, theories that say that the xs compose an object y iff the xs are F, for some natural property F. Secondly, there are brutal theories, which say it's just a brute fact that in some cases the xs compose an object, and in others they do not. It would be quite hard to imagine a principled theory solving the Problem of the Many, since it is hard to see what the principle could be. (For a more detailed argument for this, set against a somewhat different backdrop, see McKinnon 2002.) But a brutal theory could work. And such a theory has been defended. Ned Markosian (1998) argues that not only does brutalism, the doctrine that there are brute facts about when the xs compose a y, solves the Problem of the Many, the account of composition it implies fits more naturally with our intuitions about composition.